The scavengers of Archenos
by DelVarO
Summary: A UNCS ship crash-lands on a covenant-controlled planet only to find out that they are not the only humans on the planet. Rewriting is FINISHED. Chapter 10 finished and being continued.
1. The Night Before

**A/N: Hey again! Good news. Since my studies hadnt picked up pace yet i managed to sit down and work on the rewrite now and what do we have here? The first chapter. You will notice the changes right away as you begin to read, most is the same setting as before though you will notice some new parts that i added. Okay, without further delays here is the first rewritten chapter!**  


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0120 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Slipspace / Aboard UNSC Frigate_ Maria_

Captain Sergey Pavlov let out a tremendous yawn, raising his arms above him, stretching his muscles while allowing a groan escape his mouth. Hearing a satisfying popping sound coming from somewhere in his left shoulder he collapsed back into his chair.

Releasing a sigh, something that he did at least a dozen of times during the last fifteen minutes, he looked at the screen to see if anything interesting was showing up on them. The screens showed exactly the same thing the last time he looked at them, the condition of the weapon systems, engines and other things.

Though he would never admit it, he was bored on astronomical levels. There was nothing to do, nothing to watch and the other people who served on the bridge left a while ago to catch some much needed sleep, leaving Pavlov all by himself. Usually he spent nights like these conversing with anyone who was in the bridge but tonight he didn't have such luxuries.

That line of though gave an idea. Taking a look around the bridge to see if anyone was there, pausing for several moments on the holo-pad, he reached for the inner pocket of his uniform, taking another suspicious look around him and took out a small and flat metallic bottle.

The captain opened the bottle, taking a whiff of the liquid inside, the smell being slightly burning to his nostrils. Exhaling some air, he quickly took a swig from the small bottle, pouring the burning liquid down his throat. Sighing in satisfaction he quickly returned the bottle to his inner pocket. The last thing he needed was court-martial.

"I saw that," said a voice and something bright and red appeared at the corner of the captain's eye. He squinted his eyes as he turned to look at the miniature woman in a flowing red dress standing on the holo-pad. In the captain's eyes she was very beautiful, the red dress framing her body perfectly, showing her curves and he long dark red hair flowed down her back in her long pony-tail.

"Damn, Leyla, can you dim the lights? You glow like a neon sign," Pavlov said as he looked at her as he looked at the 'smart' AI's frowning face.

"I'm not glowing at all, it's your eyes. You should let them rest for a while. You haven't slept in days," Leyla replied. The captain knew what she was talking about. It was three days since they completed their objective, destroying a Covenant Remnant outpost, which involved a short battle against a single Covenant Cruiser, which ended with the slightly battered _Maria_ escaping by entering slipspace after the completion of the objective on the planet surface.

Unfortunately, the cruiser somehow followed them and after exited slipspace they shortly found themselves chased by the same ship, which resulted in another jump. It's been two days since they entered slipspace the second time and this time they were heading straight to earth, confident that the planet's orbital defense platforms will easily take care of the offending ship.

"I can't leave the bridge. If I'll go to sleep, I'm not going to wake up for another week and you know that the ship will be lost without me."

"Ah, yes. The ship will be doomed if the captain will go to sleep for a few hours," the Ai replied sarcastically. "Seriously, why do you think I am here for? Rescue you from your 'astronomical' boredom? You can buy a cheap AI back on earth to do that. Also, I recall a thing that was invented centuries ago…I think it was called 'alarm clock'," she said with feigned offended tone.

"Aw, stop that Leyla, you know that nothing could replace you."

"_Of course_ I know that, Unlike other AI's, I have style…" she said, prompting a chuckle from the captain.

"Whatever you say. Just give me status on the ship," Pavlov asked.

"We are out of Archer missiles, a single Shiva nuclear missile left, we have five MAC rounds left and we have twenty percent damage to the engines. We managed to avoid any severe damage the ship in our battle but you already know that, you looked at the status four minutes ago."

Pavlov sighed, practically feeling Leyla's irritation.

"I'm just bored, worried and tired. How are out so called 'guests'?" he asked her.

"The Elites? Oh, they are fine, keeping to themselves and not bothering anyone."

During the mission their ground forces encountered a small force of Sangheili soldiers. Somehow they ended up without a ship after being ambushed in orbit several weeks before the Maria's arrival. They offered them a lift to earth, since there weren't any Elite outposts near by and the aliens agreed to the offer. During the last five years after the end of the Human-Covenant war relationships with the Elites were strained. Pavlov knew that a long time would pass until humanity will forgive the Sangheili after the genocidal war they waged upon humanity. Pavlov also saw that the Elites regretted their actions. So far they gladly handed over technology, weaponry and various other objects that the humans asked for. He already heard about the first UNSC ship that had artificial gravity and energy shields that were far superior to any shields a Covenant ship could produce. The rumors he heard about a plasma-based human made weapon prototype that was in development made Pavlov suspect that humanity will have a large technological advancement in the years to come.

"Alright, let's keep it that way. I know that most our crew is accepting their presence but lets not risk it. I don't want any fights breaking between them," he ordered. Even though the Elites were their allies now, fights between Elites and humans were not unheard of and he didn't want to have one on his ship.

"I'll keep an eye on them and any drunk marine in their vicinity," Leyla replied with a smile.

"Speaking of marines…how many do we have left?" he asked, his voice dropping.

"We have 136 marines left, fifty-two ODST and our two big friends."

The captain though over he numbers. They lost around forty percents of their soldiers on board. In comparison with the other Frigates the UNSC had, they were severely undermanned. When he thought about it, it was pure luck that they managed to get away from the cruiser without severe damage, since the Maria was a rather old, even with the new upgrades available he doubted they could go toe to toe with a cruiser. They managed to punch a hole through the other ship with the MAC gun, slowing them down a bit and they somehow managed to get away before the cruiser could fire it's plasma turrets and Pavlov had to be thankful for the Covenant cruiser's late arrival.

"Ugh, I hate this," Pavlov groaned.

"What do you mean?"

"I hate getting these people to their deaths. I'm supposed to be responsible for them," he explained with a frown.

"Get a hold of yourself. You are responsible for them when they're on the ship. You're the captain of this ship, not some gruff Sergeant. Besides, it's not like they expected this to be a picnic when they signed up for this job," she said as she crossed her arms, lines of codes trailing across her slim body.

"I know that but I can't help but feel guilty about it. I'm the one who got them here and I'm the one who's supposed to get them back," he said as he fiddled with his inner pocket again. He took out his bottle again and took a large swig, not giving a damn about his witness, knowing well that Leyla won't say a word. She had the chance to say something during the four years of their acquaintance.

"Of course you're going to do that, it's you job. And their job is fighting on the ground. As I said, get a hold of yourself or even better, get some sleep!" she exclaimed. "And don't drink that thing here!"

"Oh fine. Just… wake me up in the morning, okay?"

"Sure, ill wake you up sometime tomorrow," she said as she started waving him away. Pavlov stood up from his chair, releasing a mighty yawn and started walking away.

"I never expected to end up being your personal alarm clock…" Leyla remarked as the captain left the room, sending a wave to the AI.

* * *

He ducked under the punch the red-headed woman launched and he blocked the following kick to his mid-section.

Spartan Ray-128 kept dodging and blocking any attacks his teammate launched, adding the occasional counter to them. Artemis-001A relentlessly attacked, attacking with all her strength, trying to break through her teammate's defense.

Ray knew that he had one major advantage here. He was one of the people who trained her and he knew all her standard moves. He even managed to predict some of her moves and counter them before they even executed but it didn't mean that she couldn't be creative. One time she did an attack that he expected but it turned out to be an unexpected feint, a thing that earned him a punch to the jaw. After that particular move he was more careful.

He was still amazed at how far she reached in such a short period of time. He trained her for only a bit longer than a year and she was as capable as any other Spartan. The only thing she lacked was experience. Due to the circumstances of her 'birth' the only thing she needed to do was learning to do the things she already knew. After all, one thing was to know how to do something. It was entirely a different thing to do that thing.

He sidestepped another punch and countered with his own. She managed to partially move away from the blow, his fist only brushing against her shoulder. Artemis spun with the momentum and entered a leg sweeping maneuver. Ray jumped over the sweep but Artemis kept the spin and entered a roundhouse kick. He landed on his feet and placed his arms in front of him to block.

The kick was hard, he would give that to her. He staggered a few steps backwards from the force of the kick but Artemis didn't relent. She charged as soon as she regained her balance, which was a split second after she kicked him. She buried her fist into his stomach, knocking the air out of him. Ray countered quickly, grabbing the second fist that was coming his way he yanked her to him, causing her to lose her balance and sent a vicious kick to the back of her knee. The leg bucked beneath her and Ray pulled her hand backwards and pushed her down to the floor.

Artemis ended up with her face being smacked against the ring's floor in a rather painful manner and her left hand on her back in a painful angle. She struggled for a few moment to get free from his firm grip but to no avail. Artemis had to admit that he was better than her in close combat.

"Alright, that's enough," Ray ordered, finally releasing her.

Ray offered her his hand, which she took and with one simple pull she was on her feet. Ray looked around the gym section of the ship. Even though it was rather late the ship was still active and so was the gym. A dozen crew members and several marines were present in the large room, practically all of them transfixed on the sparring match of the two Spartans.

"So…what's the matter?" Ray asked his teammate as he grabbed a towel. Artemis looked at him curiously with a hint of surprise.

Ray knew that she wanted to spar with him only if something happened. Spartans were never the talkative type and they preferred to vent their worries or stress in battle or training. Artemis seemingly inherited that trait even though she wasn't trained with the original group, or grew with them. Even though she fought like a Spartan soldier, wore the armor and technically _was_ a Spartan, Ray had a hard time accepting her. Perhaps she was a Spartan, but she wasn't one of _his_ Spartans. The Spartans were a family, brothers and sisters and Artemis just seemed like…an outsider in that group, even more when he thought about her origins. Somehow, even though he was one of the people who trained her, Ray felt that Artemis won't be able to come close to the level of the Spartans he grew up with.

"I…I'm not sure if I did my best in the mission. I feel like I didn't do my best there," she explained as she wiped sweat with her towel. Ray nodded his head in understanding. This was Artemis' first official combat mission and he partially understood what she meant. He remembered his own first mission and he was worried that he somehow screwed up but in the end he ignored that feeling and did the mission.

"You did well; you shouldn't worry about it. You need to remember that the mission comes first, everything else after that," Ray said, remembering all the training Chief Mendez put them through. He smiled at the memories. This was another reason why Artemis won't be a complete Spartan, regardless of how many trainings she received. She wasn't trained by Chief Mendez. This line of thought brought saddening memories along with it since he didn't see the old Chief in years and the last he heard, he went MIA.

"Well…it was different. It's one thing to hear about this, see footage but to experience it…to be there is something else," Artemis explained.

"You get used to it," Ray replied with a smile. He knew the feeling of being in a battlefield for the first time. It was so long ago and he could barely recall it. Back on Reach they prepared them as best as possible for it and they were ready for it.

"I hope so. It was…odd. All the emotion and the adrenaline, it was so damn exciting. I need to keep my head calm," Artemis said and received a nod from Ray. She was right, that Ray knew, having emotions controlling you in the middle of a battle could lead to mistakes and mistakes could lead to lives being lost. A thing he learned a long time ago…

"That's right. Remember that."

"Yeah, I remember, though not like I once could, heh," she said with a chuckle.

"You miss being like that?" Ray asked, genuinely curious.

"Aw, hell no! When I compare this to that, that old existence seems so…bland and boring!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, it had the advantages of not needing to remember things but this is so much…" she kept on talking and Ray had to interrupt her. He never knew anyone who would talk that much. If he wouldn't be careful around her, he could get stuck in a long one-sided conversation.

"Alright, I think we should go to get some sleep now. In all honesty, I'm rather tired," he said, secretly happy that Artemis paused to listen to him.

"Oh, alright. I'm not feeling that tired, really. Maybe Leyla will have to free time…" she trailed off from there. Ray noticed some time ago that Artemis developed some sort of a relationship with the ship's AI. He didn't mind, Artemis and Leyla did have some things in common and it did occupy Artemis whenever she wanted to talk. It was better Leyla than him, and the AI _did_ enjoy talking.

"Good, I will see you tomorrow morning," He said and left towards his room.

Ray still had to get used to his teammate, even after a year being around her she never was his teammate until a month ago. He didn't have teammates for a long time, other than squads of marines or ODST that he operated with, it was different and yet familiar fighting alongside a Spartan.

It was also different fighting alongside a Spartan who happened to be a former AI.  


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**Okay, this is the end so far. Hopefully ill have free time the next weekend and maybe if im lucky, i will sit down and write some more tomorrow or the day after that, so its entirely possible that the next rewritten chapter will be uploaded shortly. As a note, i want to state that Artemis-001A has no connection to the SPARTAN-III program, so dont confuse her with anyone from the Alpha company. I hope you liked the rewritten version because i sure do. Now it looks a lot better! Thank you very much for reading this and i would always like to recieve constructive criticism, suggestions, opinions and everything else you might want to say. If you noticed anything wrong, please notify me. :) Once again, thanks for reading, i'll see you soon with another chapter! :D**


	2. Landing

**A/N: Hey there, im back again!** **Sorry i havent updated a bit earlier, since i pretty much had the time to write this week.** **I've been suffering from a wierd case of insomnia so i barely got any sleep this week but eh, its the weekend and i got my needed and missing hours of sleep**** and sat down and wrote this. Now, it's not that much longer than the earlier chapter, and you will see some changes but overall, nothing much. Anyway, enjoy reading this and have fun!**

**By the way, for all the people who left a review or subscribed this story: THANK YOU! :D Your support is very appreciated and wecome!**

**Disclaimer: I dont own Halo and it's characters but i DO own my OC's and the events happening in this story.**

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1240 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Slipspace / Aboard UNSC Frigate _Maria_

The sudden rumble of the ship stopped every conversation that was going on the bridge. Captain Pavlov straightened himself in his chair and looked at the bridge crew, seeing an Ensign picking himself up from the floor. In just the span of a few heartbeats the whole crew was working furiously to find the source of the disturbance.

"Sir, we exited slipspace!" one of the men announced.

"What?" Pavlov almost yelled, not really asking a question. "What the hell happened?"

At that moment Leyla's avatar winked into view, lines of code agitatedly moving across her body and clothes. "Looks like gravity,"

Pavlov looked at her curiously, silently thankful that her bright red avatar was no longer hurting his eyes. The night of sleep he had was very helpful.

"Sir, she's right. It seems that we are in a gravity field but…we're not in a planet's range,"

"A black hole perhaps?" Pavlov asked. There were a few documented cases of a black hole interrupting slipspace travel.

"No. Here look at this." Leyla said and gestured to the screen. A picture of a planet showed up in one of the screens and soon enough the planet's information followed. The planet was large, only slightly bigger than Earth and most of its surface was white and cloudy.

"Archenos, earth type planet…was overrun by the Covenant back in 2551, presumably glasses." Pavlov read aloud. "Well, I can clearly see that it's intact but we are too far from it to be affected by its gravity and also…" he paused as he read other information on another screen. "Why aren't we moving?"

At those words practically everyone were looking through their screens but it was Leyla who answered first, only a second after he spoke. "It seems that we are in a gravity field, like I already said. Looks like its surrounding us and not letting us move. In other words, we're stuck here as long as that gravitational bubble,"

As she finished another rumble coursed through the _Maria_. Silence dominated the bridge for several seconds before work was resumed. "Okay, we're moving now." Leyla said. "Just not where we want to go,"

"We're moving towards the planet. The ship is basically immobile in this gravity bubble." One Ensign answered. "Nothing we can do until we get out of it,"

"Sir, slipspace rapture detected!" a CPO announced and the screens shifted to show the all too familiar Covenant Cruiser with a gaping hole in its side, entering the system.

"Shit." The captain silently muttered without anyone hearing him. "Leyla, call the Spartans,"

* * *

Ray and Artemis rushed through the corridors of the _Maria, _silently being glad that he and Artemis already donned their armor earlier this day and were ready and armed for combat. Carrying their helmets in their hands, they moved through the corridors as fast as he could with Artemis in tow without running or crushing some of the crew members who were running by, they quickly made their way to the bridge.

"What do you think happened?" Artemis asked him as she side-stepped to avoid colliding with a running technician.

"I have no idea but I've been enough times on a ship to know when something is wrong." Ray replied, referring to the easily felt tremors that could be felt through the ship earlier. "We'll find out everything once we get to the captain,"

"Most probably. Leyla haven't said a word when she called us to the bridge,"

The sound of the alarm sounding through the corridors made them pause for a split second before breaking into a light run. Luckily for them everyone who saw the two Spartans running through the hallways quickly moved out of the way.

"Looks like whatever it is, it's a bad thing." Artemis said as they turned the corridor and the elevator to the bridge came to their sight.

"Just like always." Rya chuckled as they entered the elevator.

* * *

Pavlov and everyone else turned to watch as the door to the bridge opened and the two Spartans entered the bridge, making everyone pause and look at them with awe.

Pavlov had to admit to himself, even after knowing Ray for quite a long time he still felt a bit of awe at the sight of the Spartan. Pavlov walked closer to them, the Spartans snapping him a quick salute. "Reporting as ordered, sir."

Giving them a nod he watched them closely. The difference between the two Spartans was extremely easy to see. Lieutenant, Junior Grade Ray-128's gray (though Pavlov could swear that the armor was green several years ago) Mjolnir armor was scratched, dented in several places; scorch marks dotted the armor in several areas. An odd addition to his armor was the bandolier that was slung over his chest, at least a dozen clips for the battle rifle were held in it and a combat knife that was sheathed on the left shoulder. Unlike Ray's armor, Petty Officer Second Class Artemis 001A's olive green armor was practically unscathed and looked like it was built only yesterday.

Pavlov knew that Ray was almost in his late forties but he looked like he was barely in his late twenties and fought like he was even younger with the experience of a veteran. His face was slightly scarred, a small part of his left eyebrow missing and a small scar under his right eye. His blue eyes were piercing and hardened and his brown hair was shortly trimmed.

Artemis was the complete opposite. Her shoulder-length red hair framed her face, which was unscarred and young. If Pavlov was told that she was only twenty years old, he would've believed it easily. Her emerald eyes were not hardened like Ray's but they held something which only warriors had.

"As you see, the situation is bad," Pavlov said and gestured at the screens, which showed a planet and the Covenant Cruiser which was only getting closer.

"I see…why do you need us here? We're soldiers, I doubt we could be of any use to you here," Ray asked with an edge of annoyance in his tone. Even after all the years he spent on ships it was still highly frustrating to be in a battle without having the ability to do anything to change the outcome.

The captain sighed and frowned. "We're abandoning the ship. Whatever it is, we can't steer the ship and we're pulled to the planet and the Cruiser is going to get us if we stay here," he told Ray.

"I understand, we already heard the alarms on the way here," Ray replied.

"Leyla, is everything ready?" Pavlov asked.

"Yes captain, everything is ready. All vital information is deleted," Leyla said and winked out. Pavlov walked to the pedestal and yanked Leyla's chip and handed it to Ray.

"If there's a safe place for an AI, it's a Spartan," Pavlov said with a smile.

Ray nodded and put on his helmet. Inserting Leyla's chip into the back of his helmet he felt the cold sensation on the back of his head, as if someone poured cold water on his head.

"Why hello there, are you coming here often?" Leyla's voice spoke through his helmet's speakers.

"I live here," Ray replied with a small chuckle.

"Good, now that we're over with this, go to the escape pods or pelicans. We'll catch up with you on the ground," Pavlov said and the Spartans left the bridge.

Running through the corridors and hallways the Spartans made it top priority to reach the escape pods as soon as possible. In all truth, the situation was dire. They had only a few minutes, five minutes tops to get out of the ship before the Cruiser will open fire, something which was rather strange since they were already in the ship's range.

"I will advice you to be ready for anything once we land. As far as we know the planet may be under Covenant control so expect trouble," Leyla said.

"Copy that, we will be ready for anything that could or would come at us," he replied.

Eventually they made it in record time to the bay where the escape pods were. The whole place was incredibly crowded, but not for long. Some of the escape pods already left and were on their way to the planet surface and he guessed that several pelican dropships will join them in their descent. Quickly making their way to the closest escape pod, which luckily still had four empty seats. Getting inside and taking their seats they proceeded to wait until the pod will be full, or until the last moment.

After a minute another passenger entered, though not exactly one they expected. Every single person in the escape pod, excluding the driver, turned their heads to watch the newcomer. He stood almost eight feet tall and wore a purple and black armor. His mandibles were slightly parted as he watched crew members and marines, taking a few seconds to stare at the pair of Spartans who sat in front of him.

Ray recognized those armor colors, he killed his own share of Elites who wore these colors and all his years of experience taught him to recognize Spec Ops Elites and he learned of how dangerous they could be. The Sangheili Spec Ops soldier kept standing there in the entrance, mostly staring at Artemis and Ray.

"Get in already!" A marine shouted as he pushed the Elite into further into the pod and took his seat beside Artemis. The pod's doors closed behind him and the Elite took a glance at them for a second before he took the seat, which probably wasn't that comfortable for him, beside Ray. As the Spec Ops soldier struggled with the human-made seatbelts Ray could've sworn that he heard him grumble something that sounded like 'Demons'.

He heard Leyla's chuckle through his helmet's internal speakers. "Looks like you have quite a reputation."

"Well, one can't go around killing thousands of their kind without getting any kind of reputation."

"If I hadn't known better, I would've said he was afraid of sitting in the same pod with you. He did seem to hesitate when he entered."

"Even the marines hesitate when they enter a room where I'm at," Ray muttered. The pod then jerked as the pod was launched into space, making its way towards the planet.

Several minutes passed in relative silence until the pod started shaking violently, telling everyone inside that they were currently entering the atmosphere. Most of the passengers of the pod were marines and ODST but there were a few crew members in there as well, and those were holding their seatbelts tightly and one of them was muttering something to himself. Eventually, the shaking stopped and everyone relaxed their holds on their seats.

"Alright, were in. Get ready for a not-so-gentle landing," the pilot said over the speakers.

"Fine, just don't crash us into some fucking rocks or some lake!" An ODST shouted, Private Richkov as his nametag showed.

A few seconds after the short exchange of words there was a sudden loud roar of an explosion and Ray saw a flash of green light coming from the pilot's cockpit before the pod suddenly lurched to the side and spun out of control. He managed to turn his head to look at the cockpit, only to see it missing, a gaping hole now being in its place. Some crew members and marines were screaming, most probably in fright or in terror. One ODST was actually hysterically laughing, his voice barely heard above the other screams and the roar of the wind around them.

The view outside kept changing every second, showing the ground, then the sky and then the ground again only it being closer than last time. After perhaps the thirtieth spin he saw the ground coming to them, a loud, deafening crashing sound and everything turned dark.

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**Okay, we're done with this chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading this and now, im going to catch some much needed slumber! Hopefully, ill be able to update during this week but i'm not promising anything because i expect the next chapter to be much longer than the original chapter three and hopefully, much better. I hope i didnt confuse you or raised a few eyebrows with anything in this chapter but if you have any questions or something like that, feel free to ask! Thank you for reading this and thank you very much for all the reviews you left! Constructive criticism is very, very welcome and all suggestions and opinion will be gleefully accepted! Until next week, see you later!**


	3. First Encounters

**A/N: Hello again. This week a got a bit behind the schedule, but i was rather busy this week so i cant blame myself ****for not having time to write. :( Anyway, it took my a while to write this and im not sure if I'm entirely pleased with this chapter but still, its a lot better than the last version of it! Enjoy reading! :P**

**Codythedude - Yeah, i know that, it was a small mistake i wrote back earlier and now im fully aware of it. When ill be using the hog's cannon again, it will be 50 Cal. :P Thanks for the review.**

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1310 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar / Planet Archenos / Unknown Location

"Ugh, my fucking head hurts…"

"Jesus, stop whining! I'm in worse shape than you!"

These were the first thing that Ray heard. He still couldn't put a name to the voices but they sounded somewhat muffled to him. A few seconds later pain blasted through his head.

"Shut up," said a female, Ray recognized the voice belonged to Artemis.

"Is the demon alive?" asked another one, a deep and guttural voice.

"Yes, he's alive," Artemis replied.

"Are you sure? He hadn't stirred for quite some time…perhaps he is dead?" the voice trailed off. Ray picked a tiny hint of hope in that voice.

Ray decided that it was time to get up. Ignoring the stinging headache he opened his eyes, seeing only blurred grey and white colors. Blinking several time until his vision cleared, seeing the escape pod's ceiling above him, slightly riddled with holes that the white sunlight shined through, he got up to a sitting position.

"Rise and shine big boy!" Leyla said cheerfully in his helmet to which he replied with a grunt.

"Oh, the second jolly giant is awake," Announced private Richkov who nursed a bleeding cut above his brow.

"Good, we can leave now," Artemis said, walking up to the sitting Spartan and offering him a hand, which he gladly took and looked around. A marine named John Silver sat in one of the seats with a bloodied and bandaged leg and Artemis stepped outside into the snow. The rest of the escape pod passengers were dead, some still in their seats.

Following Artemis outside he saw another survivor though he doubted an untrained soldier would've noticed them. Some distance from the pod in the cover of the trees was a shimmering form that he wouldn't have noticed if he didn't take a second look and noticed the two deep imprints in the snow and how the slowly falling snow came to a stop on the shimmering form. The Spec Op Elite dropped the active camo and walked up to him, brandishing a needle rifle.

"Demon, we must leave immediately. The brutes will arrive shortly to investigate the crash site," The Sangheili explained, an edge of agitation in his voice. Ray responded with a nod and walked back to the pod. The pod was critically damaged, crashed against a formation of large rocks and it seemed like a miracle that it was still in one piece.

Approaching the wounded Silver he took a long at his leg, trying to asses the damage. "Can you walk?"

"Hell no, but I'll manage. Hopefully I won't slow you down too much," The PFC replied, picking up a sniper rifle from the floor and using it as a crutch to raise himself to his feet, or rather, foot. "I heard the Elite, let's get out of here."

Ray nodded and searched the pod, picking up a battle rifle. His two M6G were still at his hips and the bandolier of ammo that he wore was still intact. Thinking for only a second, he picked up a shotgun and the ammo needed for it and attaché it to the magnetic plates on his back. Walking outside, seeing that everyone already had gathered their weapons and ammo and were ready to leave.

"I think the PFC will need some help soon. He will slow us down considerably," Leyla stated.

"I'm aware of that…we need a vehicle," the Spartan replied, looking across the forested and snowy landscape. Mountains spurted ahead and visibility was limited due to the snow but he could easily see distant aircrafts, Covenant aircrafts.

"So what do we do now?" Richkov asked, looking at the aircrafts and the landscape in front of them.

"I detect some signals near us but the range is very limited. Artemis already tried contacting someone while you were out but there was only static so I assume that there is something that jamming the signal, which will explain the poor range of the scanners," Leyla said, "I detected a signal from a pelican two miles north of our location and an escape pod in the same direction only a mile from here."

Ray quickly relayed the information to his current team. "Well, I guess it's a start," Silver shrugged.

They headed out after that quick exchange, entering the cover of the trees. Ray took the lead, the Elite, still cloaked, walking close behind him and providing cover. Ray wasn't exactly pleased with that arrangement, the Spec Op Sangheili didn't seem to be very fond of him but he was sure he won't try anything. One didn't trust someone fully after spending more than half of your own lifetime fighting against them. Artemis was covering their backs, walking behind them, her MA5C assault rifle raise and ready to be used. Richkov and the limping Silver were in the middle and the group had to pause a few times to allow Silver to get back in line and not fall behind.

Ray's hud flickered several times, and Leyla explained that it was EMP residue. What caused the EMP; even in those small quantities was unknown.

A distant sound, all too familiar to the human soldiers who heard it so many times before, made them all freeze in their tracks. As the sound drew closer Ray quickly ordered everyone to take cover as he ran to take cover behind a tree. Soon enough everyone was hidden behind trees or in Silver's case sprawled on the snowy ground in some bushes after trying to run and stumbling. They stayed in complete silence as the wailing sound got closer and closer and soon enough Ray spotted two shadows moving above them, partially hidden by the tree tops.

As the banshees disappeared from view and their sounds faded away the team finally moved. Motioning everyone else to follow, they quickly continued on their way. The Elite caught up with him to walk at his pace and Ray had to wonder if the alien soldier was planning on using the active camo forever.

"Demon, the banshee was coming from the way we are heading to. I doubt anyone has survived," he stated appearing into view. The Spartan turned his emotionless golden visor at the elite, the closest thing he had to a stare.

"Perhaps but it's the only thing we can do so far. We need to regroup, or at least gather enough ammo."

"I just hope that you are not leading us into an ambush."

"I did not survive through the whole war by getting myself into ambushes," Ray said, "And you can stop calling me 'Demon'."

"Very well…Spartan. I am Keth Orsan, I hope to witness the battle prowess that earned you that name," Keth said and slowed his pace to return to his previous position.

"Hmm, he seems like a cheerful fellow," Leyla noted. Ray looked back, seeing that Keth cloaked himself once again; the only thing that could be seen was his distorted feet when they passed through the snow.

"Noted," Ray answered, "I don't think he will mind if I will lead us into an ambush. Looks like he just wants to see how I fight…"

"You might be right about it," The AI muttered.

After that quick exchange of words things grew quiet again, the only thing that could be heard were their feet crushing the thick snow. After several minutes they slowed down and silently crept to the second escape pod crash site. As they came to the edge of the tree line the burning remains of the pod came into view. It wasn't exactly a crash, more like a harsh landing if the long trench that it carved through the ground was any indication. The ground was melted in several areas, indication of plasma fire and several dead marines were on the ground.

Slowly, Ray came out of his cover and walked over to the pod, inspecting the bodies and the ground around them. There were no footprints around in sight, other than the ones the marines made so he could assume that the banshees were responsible for their deaths. Sighing, he walked over to each body, taking their ammo and dog tags.

"Banshees," stated Keth as he uncloaked himself and inspected the damage.

"Shit…doesn't look like they stood a chance," Richkov said sadly, turning over one of the dead.

Artemis stayed silent, picking a pair of clips for her assault rifle. Silver silently inspected the carnage, panting after limping all the way up to this point. Ray returned to them, carrying a large variety of clips and handed them to the rest of the team with the exception of the Sangheili soldier.

"Let's move out. We still have one more location to check," Ray ordered.

They left soon after, having resupplied on ammo, they entered the trees again. The snow was still falling, the falling even intensified a bit and the wind was howling loudly. The trekked through the forest silently, hearing the occasional plasma fire in the distance, usually accompanied by human gunfire. After ten minutes of moving trough trees and bushes they finally reached their destination, a small clearing in the forest, surrounded by rocks on all side. In the middle of the clearing was the pelican, crashed on its side, dead bodies of several marines and Helljumpers surrounding it, the signs of battle evident everywhere in the area. The main thing that caught Ray's eyes was the overturned warthog that lay near the crashed pelican.

"Good, we have a vehicle now but I'm not sure about this…" Leyla muttered.

"I know," the Spartan replied, inspecting the area.

"Ray, there's blood over there, by the rocks," Artemis added, crouching near him. Ray looked at the direction that Artemis pointed at and he saw what she meant. Luminous blue blood dotted one of the rocks, and he could clearly see that it was on the snow around the rock as well, but there was no sing of the Grunt that the blood belonged to.

"This doesn't look good," Ray muttered, noticing more blood on several other locations, but not bodies.

"Yeah, I can see that myself, thanks for pointing this out for me," Richkov added, earning himself a look from the Spartan.

Ray thought of their options. He had never seen the Covenant take their dead bodies away, especially ones that belonged to Grunts. They needed the 'hog, but this was just screaming 'ambush' to him. Before he could decide on a course of action several dots suddenly appeared on his motion tracker, dots that were too close to his likings. The way Artemis stiffened near him told him that she noticed that as well.

"Get down!" He ordered the two soldiers behind him just as a volley of plasma bolts was launched at them, most of the bolts connecting with the Spartans' shields but not penetrating them. Richkov and Silver did as they were ordered to, Richkov crouching behind a boulder with his SMG raised and Silver behind a tree, the sniper rifle which was used as a crutch until now already raised and aimed at the small cluster of Covenant troops that suddenly sprang out from the rocks around them. A particular overcharged plasma pistol bolt barreled through the air, colliding with Ray's side, overloading his shields and sending him to the ground. He dropped down, sending snow flying everywhere. Taking a glance at his side, seeing that it was undamaged, but smoking, he got up, his battle rifle already raised and aimed at a grunt and opened fire.

The three-round burst cut through the air to hit the grunt in the chest and the neck, the small grunt dropping dead. Artemis threw a frag grenade at several grunts, who scrambled away before it exploded. The ODST sprayed bullets wildly a the general direction of the grunts that came from his side, not really doing much damage but stopping their charge while Silver picked them off from his position near the helljumper. As far as Ray saw, there was no sign of Keth in the vicinity. If that was a good sign or bad sign, he wasn't sure. Switching his aim to several jackals who already had their shields in front of them as they advanced, he managed to take one down before Artemis threw another frag in their direction. Small geysers of steam flew up into the air as the plasma melted and vaporized the snow in an instant as it contacted it.

Their position wasn't the most favorable. They were getting attacked from two sides and he was already ducking behind cover for the second time to let his shields recharge. Seeing the shield meter finally recharge he got up and sprinted away from his cover towards several boulders, releasing three bursts as he ran. As he got to the rock he was greeted by a jackal that took cover behind it. Not halting in the slightest, he took the plasma bolt without flinching and while still running, buried the butt of his rifle into the jackal's head who died before he even hit the ground. Taking aim from behind his cover, he aimed at the most vulnerable part of the Grunt: the methane tank. A single burst was enough. The grunt suddenly exploded in a burst of flames which engulfed the grunts that stood near him. He then spotted a thing he didn't really want to see here, a brute, and his favorite kind: the ones without power armor. Seeing that the brute already saw him he raised his battle rifle and aimed. Using the scope for maximum accuracy, he aimed at the head which was only protected by that measly helmet. The brute fired his plasma rifle, the bolts zipping through the air at his direction but Ray already pulled the trigger.

The rounds hit the brute in the head, who growled in pain and stopped his charge, dropping his weapon and clutching his bleeding face. Ray ducked in time for most of the plasma bolts to miss him, only two of them hitting him, dropping his shields by a quarter. Oh, how he hated brutes. They were perhaps the second most resilient race in the Covenant, second only to the hunters and the quickest way to take them down was simply shooting them in the head which didn't always work, as he saw now. The brute howled in pain and blindly charged at Ray. The Spartan raised his weapon again but before the brute could even make three steps, a thin line of energy passed through his head and the brown furred alien toppled down, a smoking, small hole in the side of its head. Ray tried to discern where the shot came from but he had no luck. The Spartan knew how a shot from a particle beam rifle looked like – after being shot at from that weapon you tend to remember it for the rest of your life – but he was glad that the shooter was on his side.

He got behind cover again as another volley of plasma impacted his rock, melting it and sending pieces of it dropping down to melt the snow from their heat. Ray got what he wanted, now the ambushers were even further divided and Ray was sure he could handle the odds that were against him, he handled worse after all. He looked at the rest of his team, seeing that Artemis was mowing down several grunts that got too close to her position. Richkov and Silver seemed to handle their side pretty well, but he doubted it would last for long since their ammo was not unlimited.

Dropping out the clip he pulled out a new one from his bandolier and popped it inside with unmatched speed. Changing his fire mode to full-auto and priming a grenade, which he threw at the direction of the remaining jackals, he rushed outside, his battle rifle blazing. Grunts fell down in bloody heaps as Ray dashed from cover to cover, occasionally crushing the skull of a grunt or a jackal that took cover behind the rock that the Spartan coveted. Ray took note when a pair of grunts screamed in pain and dropped down after a small explosion ripped through their backs. Ray looked at the source and saw two more purple needle-like projectiles hit another grunt in the back and then explode, killing it.

The grunts were at disarray now, all resemblance of an ambush now completely lost. They were running around, taking cover where they could until a certain bandolier wearing Spartan flushed them out or killed them altogether.

Of the initial number of ambushers, which was around thirty grunts and jackals, there was now barely ten of them left or in the grunts' cases, running away. Ray loaded a fresh clip into his battle rifle when an angered roar reached his ears. Quickly turning around and raising his weapon he saw a brute charging at him, accompanied by seven more grunts, already firing his Spiker.

Ray's shields flickered as they got hit and the shield-meter on his HUD was dangerously close to depleting. Jumping behind a rock just in time to avoid a spike intended for his head he managed to release a few shots while falling, dropping a grunt by sheer luck.

Taking aim from behind his cover, which took most of the damage instead of him, he pulled the trigger. The brute's power armor flickered in annoyance as the towering creature only got closer to him. Artemis turned around and added her firepower, concentrating on the grunts, which dropped down in quick order. Ray was about do reach for his shotgun for close combat against the brute when a shimmering form suddenly appeared on the brutes back, pulling the brute's head back and then stabbing a smaller version of the plasma sword into the brute's throat. Keth pulled out his plasma dagger, which extended from his wrist, and stabbed again, this time in the head.

The brute stumbled and fell forward, dead before it ever hit the ground. Keth straightened himself, one foot on the dead brute's body and wielding his needle rifle with one hand, aiming down at the now fleeing grunts. Ray took note that Keth now had a particle beam rifle attacked to his back.

Soon enough, all the present grunts and jackals – and the brutes who led them – were either gone or dead and the team regrouped in front of the pelican. When Silver got to the pelican he collapsed to the ground, his back against the pelican and proceeded to breathe heavily. The left side of his face was a bright shade of red, and the hair on that side was singed from a plasma bolt that zipped by too close to his liking.

"Hmm, now that was fun," Richkov said, ignoring the glaring Silver as was looking around the dead bodies for ammo and anything else that might be useful with his SMG still raised, "We should do this more often,"

"Looks like these ones were the last ones in this area," Artemis said, picking up a clip for her assault rifle from one of the dead marines.

The elite made sound, akin to a snort, which sounded oddly comical coming from him. "Pathetic," he grunted, picking up several plasma grenades from a dead grunt, "the brutes are ought to know that unggoy are terrible at executing ambushes. The kig-yar are a different matter though, but I took care of that matter," he explained with a shrug of his shoulder to indicate his newly acquired beam rifle.

"So that's where you disappeared to," Artemis more stated than asked.

"Correct. The kig-yar are oft the most dangerous opponent you will encounter if ambushed, especially if they have a long range weapon," Keth replied, taking a plasma rifle from one of the dead brutes.

"If everyone restocked on ammo, I think we should take what we came for," Ray said, walking towards the overturned warthog and while making it look so easy, flipped the 'hog over.

"Whoa, that's awesome," Richkov remarked.

The vehicle was a bit roughed up but it was still in one piece, or at least supposedly in working condition. He sat down in the driver seat and started the car but as much as the engine tried, it didn't roar to life.

"We should leave quickly; the grunts which escaped will notify other patrols. Soon enough they will be on us again," Leyla warned.

"I'm trying to do that…" Ray muttered.

"Allow me," Richkov said, walking up to the hood and lifting it to check the engine. Ray left his seat and walked to stand beside the ODST, watching him work. He was taught how to operate possibly every land-based and several air-based UNSC vehicles and taught himself how to operate several Covenant vehicles but he wasn't exactly well trained in repairing damaged vehicles. Of course, he could repair the warthog but apparently the private wanted to do that himself.

"I used to work with cars before I enlisted so I basically know a car's engine better than my own hand," Richkov sad as he worked. After around a minute of tinkering with the insides he looked at Ray. "Can someone start the engine?"

Artemis took the seat and started the engine, which roared to life. The private pumped a fist into the air, shouting a short cheer, and closed the hood. Ray walked to the passenger seat and hopped inside. The rest of the team piled up at the feet of the elite, who decided to man the mounted machinegun.

With an engine's roar, the 'hog drove away. Before the crashed pelican disappeared from sight Ray sent a glance at it and the dead marines that surrounded it. He hoped that they wouldn't encounter anymore sights like this one.

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**Hehe, well this chapter was a bit different, not by much but still, different. I hope that i will manage to write the next chapter at this weekend, and not somewhere in the middle of the week, like im doing now. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and thanks for reading this in the first place! Constructive criticism, or just criticism is very welcomed and all suggestions, ideas and simple opinions will be kindly accepted. :D So, until the weekends, over and out!  
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	4. The Beggining Of The Hunt

**A****/N: Awesome. Sorry it took me a while to update, i had a slight miscalculation and it was my uncle's birthday today so i didnt have as much time to write as i thought i would have but still, i managed to update it today, which is rather late here and im dying to sleep. Regardless, I finished writing this and I'm sure that this chapter is better, slightly if not by much, than the earlier version. So here it is, chapter four. Enjoy!**

**SuddenSummerStorm**** - Heh, thanks for all the support you gave me and im very glad you enjoyed the story so far. Yes, I still plan on writing the story, i just decided i will rewrite the earlier chapter because in my opinion they were really...good as i might put them. This is my first story so the earlier chapter are...sketchy at best. Really, they're crap. So i decided to fix that and now im rewriting it. Soon enough, i will get on with new chapter and the story will continue!**

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1552 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / Location unknown

The Warthog tore through the thick snow, said snow not offering any resistance to the all-terrain vehicle, as the Artemis steered the vehicle through trees and bushes, occasionally causing the 'hog to jump a bit when it drove over a hidden bush or rock.

It's been a couple of hours since they landed on the planet and so far they have met quite ferocious resistance to their presence. So far, they eliminated three patrols, a banshee and a pair of ghosts, mostly due to Keth's skills, more like a talent, with operating the warthog's machinegun. Other than that, they managed to find several more survivors groups and already agreed upon a place where they will all regroup. Unfortunately for the survivors, the Spartans' vehicle was already cramped up as it is, Richkov and Silver having to sit, rather uncomfortably, at the Elite's feet, the survivors will have to get to the rallying point by themselves.

So now they were riding around, telling any scattered groups of the rallying point and on occasion saving said groups. As annoying as that occupation was, Ray was glad that at least the majority of the groups had the common sense to do the smart thing upon crash-landing on an enemy-controlled planet: haul ass and wait for backup or regroup with others. Unfortunately, not many had the chance to do so or simply didn't think before acting, if the occasional distant explosions, gunfire and plasmafire were any indication.

Another fortunate thing that happened to them, and eased their task, was the relative decrease of EMP and whatever jammed communications. Now they could at least use the comm. though it was still filled with static, but it was usable. Leyla explained that she suspected that the Brutes were using something to jam the comm. devices and other electronics but now at least, the effect was lessened and Leyla proved to be an asset due to her ability to warn them of any patrols that got close to them and her picking the locations of any survivors.

So far they managed to avoid any large confrontations, just eliminating a couple of grunt patrols, nothing major. The banshee's were more troublesome. They could avoid them, but the snow made that into a problem because they usually left quite a visible trail when they moved through it, which was the reason why they were currently driving through the forest. They sacrificed speed for safety but even so, they still took much care to avoid being spotted by banshees. With the roads being a deathtrap for them, the forest was their only shot. It was rather annoying, Ray thought, the trees limited visibility, offered many places for ambushes and simply driving through the clusters of trees was such an annoying task, which gladly for Ray, Artemis was doing without complaining.

"Lieutenant, did you find anything?" Ray asked over the comm., hoping that the other team found something. They met Lieutenant Sinclair and the remainder of his team near one pelican, under heavy fire. They managed to assist them without any more casualties and the two teams split up from there with the same goal in mind.

_"Nope, nothing yet. Looks like things have quieted down. Having seen covvies or any friendlies in a while now,"_ a man's voice, lieutenant Sincalir's could be heard over the static.

"Yeah, I haven't seen anyone in a while as well, though that might change. Send me a word if you come across anything."

_"Affirmative, stay alert and report in case of trouble,"_ Sinclair said and terminated the comm. link.

Artemis sent him a glance, her expression hidden behind the golden visor of her helmet. Ray shrugged at the silent question. He had no idea what they were going to do. Their way of getting out of this place went down in flames, which they saw shortly after they acquired their vehicle. The Maria, or what remained of the frigate, dropped down into the atmosphere in a ball of fire, disappearing beyond the distant mountain range. Now, the only things they could do were either wait until another UNSC ship investigated their disappearance, which was unlikely to happen in the close time span, try to survive on this planet by eliminating every possible hostile creature or try to hijack the covenant corvette that took down the _Maria_, if that corvette even stopped on this planet. Leyla concluded, and Ray wholeheartedly agreed, that this planet was now a Covenant base, since he could see no other explanation to why the planet was not glassed and the heavy covenant presence.

Ray wasn't exactly worried about the brute presence; he already took down dozens of covenant bases on several planets. The only thing he did worry about was getting out of here. Usually he had a ship to take him home but now they were stuck here.

Richkov and Silver were behind him, having a heated conversation about who knew what. Five minutes ago they were discussing about women, now they talked about, oddly enough, cheeseburgers. How they managed to change the topic to something so different was beyond him.

"Seriously, when's the last time you had one of those?" Richkov asked incredulously as he exhaled the smoke from his cigarette, his helmet in his lap. He had short, dirty blond hair and a slightly scarred face with a nose which looked like it was broken several times in the past.

"Damn, I can't even remember that. I think it was around three years ago when I was on shore-leave on earth," Silver replied, a dreamy look on his slightly dirt-covered face.

"Bah, screw that. I'm getting out for a week or two after we get out of this shitty mess and get back to earth. There, I'll have enough cheeseburgers and women to last me a month!"

"I agree on the food, but I doubt you'll get the women you talked about with your attitude…" Silver muttered under his breath, loud enough to be heard by Richkov.

"What was that about my attitude? Dude, I'm still alive here, so that means I'm a freaking war-hero. Women _love_ war-heroes. Besides, as a matter of fact every piece of food will beat whatever they gave us back in the mess hall on the ship," the private said smoothly only to be interrupted by snickering coming from the PFC.

"Seriously, I'm in pain already, you don't have to make it worse," Silver said between snickers, "Just thinking about that crap makes me want to lose my breakfast."

All the while Keth was overhearing their conversation due to their close proximity, or inability to ignore them, the Sangheili occasionally sending the human soldiers confused glances.

"I fail to understand why your superiors will give you 'crap' as food," Keth said with a questioning stare.

"Heh, you found the wrong people to ask. You think we enjoy eating that 'nutritious food products'?" Silver asked, grinning widely. The elite simply shook his head, wondering if he should even try to understand the humans.

"Contacts!" Leyla announced through Ray's speakers, silencing everyone.

"How many?" Ray asked her.

"Too many for us to handle, they're moving on the road though, so unless we head for the road ourselves, they won't give us any problems. Still, I suggest keeping low profile, just in case," Leyla explained, still using his speakers so everyone could hear.

Artemis slowed down and parked the warthog behind some cluster of trees and bushes. Ray gave her a nod and jumped out of the vehicle, making his way through the snow to the direction of the road. The Spartan moved on through the knee-deep snow and after a few seconds he was out of sight, though the sound of him moving through the snow could still be heard.

"Where's he going?" Richkov asked, throwing away the remainder of his cigarette and putting on his helmet. "He's not going to check it out, is he?"

"He can handle it, don't worry. He'll be back in a few minutes," Artemis replied.

"Will he be fine? The AI said that there's too many for us to handle…" Silver asked, watching the last spot where the Spartan was.

"He handled worse. Now shut up, he will be here soon," Artemis assured them, getting quite annoyed at their questions, though appreciating the concern to her teammate.

Ray moved through the snowy ground, not for the first time annoyed that he weighted so much while in his armor. The amount of noise he made when he moved through the snow would certainly alert anyone who had ears and it was not something he planned on. The key to what he had planned was complete silence. He had advanced training in stealth but it was still difficult moving in snow and stay silent. Looking behind him to see if anyone from his team could still see him, seeing that he was out of their sight, he continued with his plan. This was not something his current teammates, the elite in particular, with the exception of Artemis, had to see.

Entering his suit's options, he activated the newest addition. He watched as his body suddenly dissipated from view, replaced by slightly shimmering air. Like with the Sangheili, the area around his feet, which were in the snow, was shimmering wildly. As long as he will stay away from snow, he was guaranteed to be practically invisible. Unfortunately, the snow was everywhere.

"Nice trick," Leyla remarked and Ray grinned behind his helmet, completely agreeing with her.

This was one of the bonuses he had from working closely from ONI. One of the main duties he had consisted of field testing prototypes, like Artemis and the enhanced active camo unit he had installed in his armor. Of course, the active camo unit was not exactly what he could call stable, since it had the tendency to take too much power even when he wasn't moving and he couldn't use it at the same time with his shields. Both his shields and the active camo used the same power source in his suit and using both of them at the same time will be too taxing so he could only use one of them. This was also one of the things that the elites still had advantage in. The Spec Ops elites, like Keth, could use both the shields and the active camo at the same time, making them formidable foes to face. His superiors promised that they will work something out but so far, he had to make use of what he was given.

So far, the active camo hadn't failed him. It still had several bugs, like the field that surrounded his body shimmering too much that he was actually noticeable but he could overcome that with ease. If he was immobile, the cloak could hold for almost half an hour but if he moved it would only hold around ten minutes, depends on which speed he moved at. Jogging through the snow until he finally reached the road he finally stopped, looking around him. Staying at the ground will be risky, since the snow will give him away if he will stay in it. Seeing a tree that looked sturdy enough he swiftly climbed it, eventually stopping at a low branch, hidden by the other branches.

He sat there for a few minutes, hoping that the branch will hold his half ton of weight until a yellow dot finally showed up on his motion tracker and than a second one. Ray peered through the higher branches at the grey sky, watching the clouds until he finally spotted his targets. Two banshees flew above him and then started circling his position, like vultures. In the Spartan's opinion that was a bad sign. Several new dots appeared in his tracker, than another dozen. Soon enough an entire platoon came into view: at least thirty grunts and twenty more jackals, followed by three brutes and a pair of hunters. The first thing Ray noticed that it wasn't a simple patrol, they were after something and something in Ray's mind told him that they were the targets.

"Artemis, be ready. When I get back we haul ass," he said to her through the comm.

A trio of Ghosts came into view, slowly following the large group. To Ray's annoyance they stopped right beneath the tree he was perched upon, the brutes started shouting orders to the grunts and jackals, which to Ray's dismay, started entering the forest. Quickly sifting through his options he came to a decision that came to many others before: haul ass and get to a defensible position if needed. He was completely unseen so far so that meant that he had the surprise advantage. Taking a pair of frag grenades from his belt he pulled the pins and threw them at the direction of the brutes.

Both the grenades were accurate, landing at their feet. As the grenades exploded, Ray was already jumping down, landing right in front of a grunt, who squeaked in surprise but was silenced with a vicious punch to the face. With the enemy group in complete disarray, some shooting at all directions, Rat sprinted away, taking pleasure that no one had seen him, or the tracks he made so far. When he was far enough he disabled the active camo and after a few seconds he saw his shield meter recharge again.

Soon enough the warthog and its occupants, who stared at him in confusion, and Artemis started the engine. The vehicle started moving and Ray jumped into the passenger seat.

"Move! They're going to be on our asses in a few minutes," Ray shouted, looking up to see if the banshees already located them. Apparently the brutes already knew that they were in this area and the Spartan didn't like it one bit.

The warthog rode at full speed through the trees and bushes, Artemis' driving skills showing as they avoided colliding with anything so far. They continued that way for a few minutes, silently watching their surroundings for anything hostile. Soon enough the sound of a Covenant-made vehicle came to them and a Ghost came into view. Keth quickly turned the turret an unleashed a barrage of 50 cal. Rounds into the ghost, followed by Ray's battle rifle and Richkov's SMG. The ghost couldn't take much of that punishment and soon enough came to a stop with the help of a tree but two more ghosts took its place. One of the vehicles lined itself directly behind them and opened fire.

Plasma bolts filled the air, several of them hitting the Sangheili whose shields shimmered in response as he turned the turret. Silver also took aim, releasing a whole clip into the vehicle. Ray and Richkov opened fire at the second ghost who was trying to flank them or ram into them. Within a few seconds both of the vehicles were burning in the snow, mostly due to the Sangheili manning the turret.

The forest suddenly came to a halt, a large clearing taking its place. Ray silently cursed knowing full what it meant.

"Shit, banshees!" Silver shouted, speaking aloud Ray's thoughts.

The two banshees entered a dive, opening fire as they flew closer. Small geysers of steam erupted around them at the places where the plasma bolts impacted, vaporizing the snow immediately upon contact. Artemis steered the 'hog left and right, creating a zigzagging pattern that made hitting them harder. All the passengers of the warthog opened fire at the two aircrafts, the most formidable of them being Keth and his turret. The two banshees released a shot from their fuel rod cannons and Artemis turned sharply to the right. The two rounds of green, blazing death flew past them in an arc, impacting with the ground and sending a large geyser of ground and steam.

"Shiiiit!" Richkov screamed as the fuel rod round flew above them, showering them with immense heat.

Everyone continued firing on the two aircrafts until they managed to score a lucky hit and one of the small wings of one of the banshees blew in a small explosion. The banshee spun out of control and crashed into the ground, sending snow and dirt into the ground. The second banshee was luckier, coming out of the dive relatively in one piece. The banshee circled around them, all the while being under fire from the humans and single elite. The banshee's second dive was less successful. It fell crashed down before it could release a single shot at them. Before any one of them could celebrate another banshee appeared in the distance, too far away for any one of them to score a round.

They continued riding until they entered the forest again, away from the banshee's view. Ray knew that they were in deep shit right now. The banshee was most likely broadcasting their position so escaping wasn't likely unless they took down the banshee or completely vanished from its view.

Unfortunately, both of the plans failed when the forest came to an end again and they came out to the feet of the mountain and the road. The worst part was the fact that there was a blockade up ahead, filled with grunts and jackals and a pair of turrets. As soon as the grunts noticed the warthog that drew closer every second passing by, they climbed on the turrets and opened fire.

Plasma fire rained down on the vehicle, the front windshield shattering under the fire. Both of the Spartans at the front had their shields shimmering at several plasma bolts hit them. All the passengers that could fight back opened fire at the turrets and Artemis, who showed admirable control and didn't even flinch when several bolts hit her, steered the 'hog away from the bolts.

Artemis didn't slow down; in fact the warthog even rode faster as it neared the barricade. Several grunts who weren't fast enough were crushed beneath the 'hog as Artemis drove on through the barricade, crushing any sort of resistance that the aliens offered.

They passed the barricade with relative ease, the Spartans and the Sangheili taking most of the damage with their shields. Plasma bolts followed their path as the turrets shot after them until eventually the 'hog was far enough for them to stop shooting.

The warthog followed the road, losing its pursuer for the time being. They continued riding at the feet of the mountain until finally a large clearing came into view. The landscape was beautiful but the several wraiths that were in that clearing completely ruined the view in Ray's opinion. Even worse, the wraiths opened fire. The private started screaming, mostly due to his inability to do anything to stop the large plasma mortar and the horror at being roasted by one of the said mortar rounds. Artemis steered to the side sharply; the mortar round impacted the ground several feet away from them but that was enough to raise the vehicle to the side, causing it to ride on only two wheels. By that time all the occupants of the warthog opened fire at one of the wraiths, concentrating on one at a time to cause as much damage as they could.

Artemis steered the 'hog to the side, driving to a side road that headed up into the mountain. The mortar plasma rounds followed them, impacting the ground behind them, showering the passengers of the warthog with snow and dirt and unbearable heat.

"More ghosts!" Silver shouted and Ray turned his head to see another pair of ghosts following them from behind, already opening fire. Keth turned the turret once again and opened fire. The ghosts veered left and right, managing to slightly avoid the 50 Cal. Bullets.

"Keth! Give me a grenade!" Ray shouted to be heard over the fire. The elite gave no indication that he heard but he removed one hand from the machinegun, moving it to his lower and taking on the plasma grenades that were attacked to his belt, and casually threw it to the Spartan.

Ray nimbly caught the grenade and activated it. Twisting around his body so he would have comfortable room for a throw, he threw the grenade with all his might, which was quite powerful in its own right. The brightly glowing grenade flew through the air at amazing speeds, impacting one of the ghosts. The brute driving the ghost barely had any time to react when the grenade exploded in a blue flash, sending a powerful superheated explosion through the vehicle. The ghost exploded, tumbling to the ground in a burning heap, effectively blocking the road for the second ghost, which came to a halt to avoid a collision.

The PFC broke into laughter when they finally got away from them and the plasma fire receded. Artemis drove the 'hog for several minutes of relative silence, with only the distant banshee following them as they climbed the mountain.

"Silver, give me the rifle," Ray ordered and the PFC handed him the sniper rifle accompanied with a quizzical expression. Ray silently took hold of the rifle and took aim. The clip was full, to Ray's delight and he aimed, considering the speed of their movement and the speed of the banshee's flight. Eventually finishing his calculation he released the contents of the clip, the four rounds whistling through the air, making their way to the banshee. A small spark of an explosion could be seen from their location as the banshee suddenly veered to the side and entered a steep dive with a collision course with the ground.

Ray handed the rifle back to Silver, who whistled in awe, looking at the Spartan as if he was his new idol. The Spartan only offered him a nod, not quite sure on how to react to that stare. They continued driving with the hopes that their pursuit was over with the end of the banshee. Ray knew that as long as they won't stop, no one will follow them. Now, the only thing they could do was follow the road and take the first opportunity to drive away from it.

Unfortunately, it seemed that whatever controlled the events, be it simple fate or a higher force, was pissed off at them. Artemis stopped the hog as the road suddenly ended with a large mountain of rock and boulders. It looked like there was an avalanche at this place and now the road was blocked for them. As Ray inspected the small mountain of rock he came to a conclusion: they won't be able to climb it fast enough. The road ended with the avalanche, the left was a long drop from the mountain but the left side gave him some measure of hope.

It was a small cluster of trees and several bushes, around a hundred meters in length with a large hill at its end. Seeing no other options other than create a defensible position Ray jumped out of the 'hog, Artemis following him.

"Shit, shit, shit! This whole goddamn planet is a whole clusterfuck of shit!" Silver growled as he looked at the mound of rock that blocked their way. Keth silently jumped down from the vehicle, activating his camo and disappearing, but not to the Spartans, view.

"Get a hold on yourself. Come on, we'll survive this," Artemis said as she grabbed the PFC by the shoulder and lifted him with one hand and placed him on the ground.

"We need to head to that hill over there," Ray ordered, pointing at the hill he spotted earlier, "We'll have a higher chance of survival over there."

"Oh yeah, what if they bring those fucking wraiths up here? How the fuck are we going to survive that?" Silver nearly shouted on top of his lungs as he limped to the hill.

"We'll survive. I've been through worse. Trust us," Ray simply said, his voice showing complete calm at their grim situation.

Ray got into the warthog and drove it to the hill, managing to squeeze it through the tight space between the trees. Eventually getting the 'hog on the hill, creating a small barricade for them to use, Ray jumped out of the 'hog and surveyed the area, thinking of what he could do to heighten their chances of survival.

"Leyla, how much time until they get here?" Ray asked, hoping the AI will provide comforting news.

"Not much, tem minutes at best, five if they really want to get rid of us," the AI replied.

Ray nodded to himself, already seeing the defenses they could mount up in that time, especially with the help of two Spartans and a single elite. First of all, they will need something to offer them defense. Some rocks could provide that, the warthog counted as a turret and a shield at the same time. Grinning to himself for a second, already picturing the pain they were going to deliver when the Covvies came after them he started ordering and explaining his plan.

* * *

**Well, this is the end so far. I hope you enoyed this chapter, because i enjoyed writing it. Next chapter will be more fun because if you can recall, it was a bloody battle chapter! Heh, i love those. Anyway, if you spot any flaws or mistakes i wrote, please notify me of their existance! Thank you for all the reviews and thank you for reading this! All constructive criticism and suggestions, opinions and everything of the like is very welcomed! Thanks for reading this so until next week, Del.**


	5. The Spartan's Hill

**A/N: Wicked, this is the longest chapter in the rewrite yet! Okay, first of all, i must apologise for having such a huge delay with the update, nearly a month! I had a few issues with RL and i was rather busy, though i could still write but i simply neglected that part. Still, i managed to write this up, and personally i think its a lot better than the first version. Now, have fun reading this and once again, sorry for the delay!**  


* * *

1601 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / Mountain

So far, Leyla's estimation proved to be only half correct. It's been almost ten minutes since they lost sight of the aliens and there was still no sign of them. Somewhere deep inside Ray hoped that they decided to drop the chase but he knew that it was as likely as him secretly being an Elite. He also wasn't sure if he should be glad for the delay or be worried. They could just be amassing down there, regrouping and forming a bloody army to take them out and he wouldn't blame them, he saw the Covenant amass armies just to get rid of a single Spartan, on one occasion that Spartan being himself.

He survived that encounter but back then he was alone and the only thing he had to worry about was his own well being. Now, he had a small team to keep alive, that team consisting from a half-Spartan, a Sangheili who insisted on staying cloaked, a marine who couldn't walk, a helljumper who was cursing more than he was shooting and a single full-fledged Spartan (that one being himself).

Ray stood atop the hill they chose to make their defense, surveying the area. In the ten minutes that passed they managed to set up several barricades, mainly made from rocks and dirt and some large boulders which were moved by the more physically capable, mainly the Elite and Spartans. Their vehicle also operated as their cover now and as their stationary turret.

In front of him was the small tree cluster, standing around twenty meters in diameter and behind it was the road. In that cluster he could see only four paths where their larger enemies, brutes and hunters, could pass. As for the smaller ones, they could easily swarm them but they will have to get through a barrage of gunfire first. He chuckled to himself as he thought of the little surprise he and Artemis cooked up for the first wave of grunts and jackals.

"What are you laughing about?" he heard his fellow Spartan ask him through their private channel.

"Nothing much, just trying to imagine the look on the face of the grunt who is going to be the first in line…" he replied, a small smirk forming on his mouth.

"Heh, with luck you might be able to see it in time. Our little feisty split-lip seems to be a little trigger-happy," Artemis said, the nearly invisible sings of a chuckle playing in her tone, "Where ever he is now."

Ray turned his head to look at the last position Keth was in but found only empty space. Turning to look at Artemis she simply shrugged at his silent question. "Beats me, he changes position every few minutes," she added to the shrug.

Ray shifted uneasily as he took a look around. It was already five years since they stopped fighting the Sangheili but damn, he spent nearly all his life, 27 years of it fighting those multiple-jawed aliens. Some might call him paranoid but having an alien, who could turn nearly invisible at will, covering his back made him a bit uneasy. It was one of the things that only time could take care of. Five years ago he was feeling uneasy just by standing near them and _not_ shooting them.

"I guess he takes the element of surprise to new levels," Ray mumbled, receiving a chuckle from his teammate as a response.

Several feet behind Ray the two marines sat on pile of rocks, silently watching the Spartans and waiting for the covvies to come and get them. Richkov was silently watching, taking a drag from his cigarette every few seconds while Silver was preparing his sniper rifle for combat. They agreed that the PFC will stay behind and behind cover, since he had the mobility of a rock and wouldn't be able to move away if needed.

Richkov silently watched the Spartans with a suspicious eye, seeing the looks they gave each other and the general body language they showed. In fact, it looked like they were…conversing.

"Woah…I didn't know these guys had telepathy," he mumbled and Silver snorted in response.

"You dumbass, they have helmets," he said with an eye roll, "it's pretty obvious that they have a private com channel."

"Ugh, I knew that. I was just trying to lighten the mood!" the private complained.

"I'm sorry, but for some reason I don't find idiocy that amusing, especially yours," Silver replied, returning to his previous occupation.

"Oh, fuck you, you're no fun at all," Richkov mumbled and stood up. Walking back to his chosen spot, a very large pile of rocks, he took another look at the Spartans.

He knew of the animosity between the Spartans and the ODST but he didn't really know where it began. Sure, before the Spartans the helljumpers were UNSC's elite but now they were in second place. Still, that didn't exactly warrant such behavior towards the supersoldiers. He always tried being open minded towards things, even tolerating a split-lip in his team and those two Spartans. The chick was interesting enough; at least she talked, not like the grey one who only talked to give orders. Just as he thought of him, the grey one turned his head to his direction and he felt his gaze settle on him, even though he couldn't be sure with that reflecting visor he still felt it.

"Get ready, we have contacts," the grey armored soldier said, taking hold of his battle rifle and crouching behind his own cover, Artemis doing the same at her own spot. Silver climbed to his feet and limped to his heavily covered sniping spot.

"Copy that," Richkov responded with a sigh, taking out his handgun, knowing well that his SMG will be rather useless at this range and that ammo was rather scarce at the moment.

* * *

Lolyap was annoyed. No, pissed would be the more fitting word. Opharius, their Jiralhanae leader, ordered him and his team of unggoy to be the first wave of their attack, speaking as if it was a great honor but Lolyap knew better. They were the cannon fodder and with their 'help' Opharius and his soldiers to know how well fortified the demons were.

Some Kig-yar laughed as Lolayp and his team walked by, following the road and most likely to their deaths. Another wave of anger flooded Lolyap as he heard the treacherous bastards laugh at them. Even they knew they were being sent to their deaths.

By now Lolyap really regretted his past decision to stay with the vicious Jiralhanae. It's not like the Sangheili didn't use them as shock troopers and cannon fodder but the Sangheili showed at least _some_ measure of respect to them. The hairy beasts he now answered to treated them like trash and he heard very disturbing rumors that his current commander, Opharius, liked to bite off the heads of Unggoy under his command. He hadn't witnessed such a thing, yet, but he will be an idiot if he tried his luck with the overly vicious chieftain. He couldn't speak his mind aloud now, if anyone would've found out that he regretted his choice he will get the first ticket to a high velocity ride, courtesy of Opharius' gravity hammer.

He ordered his soldiers to move slowly as they got nearer to the demons. Right now, there was nothing he wouldn't want more than to run away and hide but alas, the only way out of this situation was either going back and deal with Opharius or go to the demons. Both of these options were likely to end with him missing his head or other limbs. Well, he could jump down from the mountain but that will only bring the same result as the other two options. The only thing that kept him moving were the legends that the demons killed you before you even knew of your death. That sounded less painful than the other two options.

As they turned the corner he saw the cluster of trees. That was the only way the demons could've gone to. He saw their vehicle on the hill but no sign of the ones who drove it. Motioning for his trio of heavy Unggoy, who carried fuel rod cannons, he ordered them to take the lead.

Very slowly, almost at crawl speed, they crept through the snowy underbrush, aiming their weapons at every spot that looked suspicious. Lolyap was sure that this was the moment where he was supposed to die. Or maybe he already died and just hadn't noticed it?

Everything seemed to quiet and no one was in sight. Just then, the heavy Unggoy in front of Lolyap took a careful step forward and a snapping sound, almost metallic, could be heard. Lolyap looked down at the feet of the Unggoy and saw a small, thin and almost invisible wire.

A second later a deafening road erased all other sound and felt himself being thrown away with a bone crushing force. Lolyap cursed himself for not going with the Sangheili one last time before everything went dark.

* * *

"Booyah!" Richkov shouted as he rose from cover and unleashed a pair of shots from his M6G sidearm, using the smart-link scope with deadly accuracy, dropping a pair of dazed grunts.

The trap worked with deadly and highly-explosive efficiency. The first grunts, who to Ray's pleasure, carried the heavy weapons for the team and even better, they were in the lead. As soon as they stepped on the tripwire, the frag grenades he and Artemis planted there detonated, creating a lethal and colorful chain reaction. The grenades exploded, nearly vaporizing the grunts when their methane tanks detonated from the blast, the fire engulfing several other grunts that stood too close. After that, the typical panic associated with grunts took place, the remaining eleven grunts starting to run at every available direction, two of them tripping the other tripwires the Spartans place. Snow, dirt, pieces of wood and grunt pieces flew into the air, luminous blue blood painted the area as the thundering explosions filled the clearing.

Ray quietly and with deadly efficiency took down the panicking grunts, his battle rifle set on single firing mode. Artemis and Richkov picked out the remaining grunts and the whole extremely short confrontation was over with less than ten shots being fired.

"Hah, I love it when things go my way," Ray said after a hearty laugh, inspecting the carnage he and Artemis created, wondering if any grunts survived their onslaught.

"Is that so?" Leyla asked through his helmet's speakers, "sorry to spoil your mood but I detect thirty more contacts coming to our position and the grunts blew up most of the tripwires," she added, sounding awfully too cheerful to Ray's liking.

"Incoming!" Ray announced and just in time as a large number of jackals and grunts charged from around the corner.

Aiming down the scope he released a pair of rounds into a grunt and aimed at the next one in line. To his right he heard the thundering roar of a sniper rifle and through the scope he saw a jackals head explode and the grunt behind him falling down, a gaping hole in his chest. Two more grunts dropped down, courtesy of Artemis' and Richkov's shooting. A thin line of energy whizzed through the air, coming to a stop right between a jackal's eyes. Ray knew that it was Keth's doing but he couldn't trace the elite's location. He didn't have to anyway, he was taking down hostiles and it's all that mattered.

Releasing a trio of shots into another grunt he ducked behind his cover as a salvo of green plasma bolts and purple-pink needles zipped above him or pelted the rocks he used as cover. The Covenant Loyalists charged with uncanny abandon, which surprised Ray to some degree. They were gunning them down and more than half of them were already dead by the time they cleared half the way to their hill but it almost seemed that they were fearless, charging at the bullets with no care in the world.

A small group of Jackal skirmishers, five in total charged the hill, most of them brandishing needle rifles. Ray ducked down as the first volley was fired and he quickly changed his firing mode to burst, right now he didn't have time to pick his shots. He managed to spare a glance at the rest of his teammates. Artemis was shooting at quick bursts on a group of jackals that huddled behind their shields. One of the Jackals hadn't placed his shield properly, leaving a small portion of his head exposed and a second later a supersonic high caliber round pierced its skull, sending pieces of bone and blood on the jackal's surprised brethren. Richkov was ducking in and out of his cover, mowing down the incoming grunts with his SMG and occasionally throwing a frag when the hostile were getting packed in one place.

Ray stood from his cover and unleashed a pair of bursts into a skirmisher. The alien dropped down with an odd squeak, bullet holes riddling his torso and Ray quickly aimed at the next jackal but before he could pull the trigger a pair of purple needles hit the target, one in the neck and the other in the eye. The skirmisher dropped down, dead before it even hit the ground. Ray realigned his aim and shot another skirmisher directly in the face. Several plasma bolts and needles hit him but they either dispersed or shattered in his shields but than a yellowish beam of light hit him right in the chest and the shield meter on his HUD started dropping in a frightening speed.

He quickly dropped behind his cover, seeing his shields at only ten percent. He got lucky there. He recognized the weapon easily enough since the Covenant only had one of those in its vast arsenal. The Type-52 Special Applications Rifle or simply the focus rifle was annoying as hell. He already faced that weapon before and he quickly learned that this weapon was the bane of all energy shielding he knew about.

"Silver!" Ray said over the team com, still behind his cover, waiting for his shields to recharge, "There's a sniper somewhere, has a focus rifle."

"On it!" Silver replied, taking aim and after a couple of seconds pulling the trigger, "Done,"

Ray gave him a nod and with his shields fully charged, stood again only to find himself face to face with a skirmisher who climbed the hill. There was no quick thinking or calculated maneuvers and it all happened by pure reflex and it was all over in a second. The jackal raised his needle rifle but Ray simply shoved the barrel of his battle rifle into the alien's beak-like maw and pulled the trigger. The trio of rounds went right through the jackals head, coming out from the other side in a small fountain of blood and gore. Ray shoved the jackal from his weapon, the alien tumbling down the hill, and aimed his now blood covered weapon at the next target.

Artemis loaded another clip into her assault rifle and rose from her cover, spraying bullets into a small gathering of skirmishers, plasma bolts and needle rounds pinging off from her shields. A blue streak flew through the air, coming from somewhere to her right. She watched the plasma grenade hit one of the jackals in the chest. The avian alien dropped its weapon and tried to pull the blue glowing objects off but only getting its claws stuck on it as well. The grenade detonated, nearly vaporizing the jackal and showering burning plasma on its nearest brethren.

The female Spartan turned her head to see the Spec Op elite prime another grenade and hurl it over his own cover and then get up, reloading his needle rifle and rush off to stem the flow of hostiles that threatened to overwhelm them.

Artemis tried her best to find a word to describe what was going on but she only came up with one. Insanity. Bullets and plasma bolts were filling the air, steam from the melting stone and smoke rising from the smoldered bodies of dead grunts and jackals impaired vision, but not enough to hinder the sight of a Spartan. Explosions, either from a grenade or a detonating grunt's methane tank thundered across the area, deafening any other sound for a split second. Artemis was only in a single life-threatening combat situation, and it happened in the last mission. This time she was ready for it but regardless of how much she tried to keep a clear mind during the battle, emotions and thoughts assaulted her mind. She tried to suppress them, remembering her teammate's words that distraction during a battle can cost you your life, and emotions could be a distraction.

Adrenaline flooded her mind and Spartan time kicked in several minutes ago. Everything seemed to crawl and as she sidestepped a plasma bolt that was about to hit her she saw another projectile: a glowing blue orb arcing through the air in her direction. The plasma grenade landed on a rock rick in front of her but Artemis wasn't about to let some measly grunt ruin her only cover, which was already half melted by now. She quickly grabbed the rock, remembering all the training and knowledge imprinted into her mind about plasma grenades, and threw it with all her force at a trio of grunts that were charging her. The size of the rock, coupled by the speed it traveled at and the force that the Spartan used to throw it were enough to cave in the grunt's face when it impacted. The grunt died on the spot, falling down in front of its comrades and the blue orb of death detonated, engulfing the remaining pair in a wave of burning plasma.

Ray's battle rifle clicked empty and the Spartan quickly ejected the now empty magazine while with the other hand grabbing one of the clips that were on his bandolier and punched it into the weapon. The whole process took a bit more than a second. With now his reloaded gun he shot a burst at a jackal who tried to hide behind his shield and then shot another burst into a grunt. He was about to shoot a jackal who stayed behind, brandishing a beam rifle, when the half melted pile of rocks he used as cover exploded, showering him with rock and dirt, causing his shields to drop. He fell backwards from the force of the explosion but he quickly got back up.

"BK's!" Richkov shouted but he didn't need to. Ray already saw the pair of brutes, holding their brute shots, bombarding the hill the team defended while another wave, though smaller than the last one, of grunts and jackals charged the hill.

Ray took aim and shot several bursts while moving to a new cover while Artemis abandoned her own just in time before it exploded as well. She sprinted to the warthog and jumped on it, grabbing the machine gun on the back. Spinning the turret she quickly took aim and pulled the trigger. The chain gun started spinning and unleashed its hellish load of armor piercing rounds upon the charging forces.

The grunts and jackals who didn't manage to raise their shields in time were cut down to pieces in seconds, while the ones who were fast enough to take cover behind trees lived only a few seconds longer as the bullets fired by the M41 chain gun went right through the wood and into the aliens. Several trees fell down as the turret completely tore the wood into splinters and followed by that, everything that was behind it. The brutes managed to release only one shot before Artemis finally got to them. Their power armor lasted only a couple of seconds before they overloaded and the bullets found their mark in the flesh and bone underneath the shields, tearing everything apart.

It seemed like they could win the battle, with the complete decimation Artemis provided but that line of thought was taken down when a pair of hulking huge creatures completely covered with armor came from around the corner and entered the fray, their hand mounted fuel rod cannons already fully charged. To make it worst, another trio of brutes followed them from behind with a squad of grunts.

Artemis was already moving when the hunters opened fire, the beam of green, flaming death hitting the 'hog just as she jumped off and Ray saw the explosion engulf his Spartan teammate. She disappeared from sight only for a split second before she came out flying straight into the mountain wall. The force of the collision sent cracks running in the stone and Artemis slumped down, where she lay unmoving, several wisps of smoke rising from her olive green armor.

Before Ray could do anything else, something bright and green shined in the corner of his eye and he reacted quickly. As he jumped to the side the beam barely missing him and he felt a wave of agonizing heat on his left flank. He rolled away when he landed, coming to a stop behind the burning remains of the warthog. They were in trouble now, serious trouble by the looks of it. A pair of hunters was hard to deal with, especially if you didn't have any heavy weapons, which they didn't. He saw Richkov jump back as his cover exploded in a shower of dull-green light and molten rock. On this hill they were sitting ducks and the only way to deal with hunters when you didn't have heavy weapons is to take the battle to the hunters.

Reloading his battle rifle he jumped out from his cover only to see a small black projectile flying through the air in his direction. His eyes widened when he recognized what it was and he jumped to the side. The small explosive projectile that was fired from a brute shot impacted the spot where Ray stood only a split second ago but the Spartan didn't get out of it unscathed. He got caught in the explosion and he saw his shields drop by half and then he hit the ground and tumbled down the hill.

When he finally stopped he managed to see the hulking form of a brute charging him, raising his brute shot to use it as a melee weapon. Still in his lying position on the ground he probably wouldn't get up in time so he did the only thing he could. Raising his weapon and with a simple flick of his thumb changed the firing mode to full auto and opened fire.

The bullets pinged off from the shields of the power armor but still didn't penetrate. To the Spartan's dismay the rifle clicked several times, a doom harboring sound to any soldier in a tight situation, especially when a brute was only several steps away. Ray didn't let that affect him. Dropping the weapon he reached to his hips with lightning speed and drew his pair of M6G handguns, quickly taking aim. At this distance there was no way anyone could miss, especially a Spartan, and unleashed the heavy magnum rounds at the brutes. The first rounds exploded upon contact with the shields but after a second of firing the power armor fail and with a flash of energy the shields collapsed. Once the brute was unshielded Ray aimed slightly higher and opened fire, unleashing more bullets into the brute's face. One round send sparks when it connected with the beast's helmet but all the others hit their mark, sending small pieces of bone and blood from the other side of the brute's head and in a moment it collapsed in front of the Spartan, a thick pull of its dark blood forming.

Fixing himself into a sitting position, gunning down a pair of grunts who got too close in the process, he reloaded his pistols and holstered back onto the magnetic plates on his hips and reached for his battle rifle. Richkov was doing a damn good job in distracting the hunters as he ran from cover to cover, each of which was destroyed a second after he left it, drawing the pair's attention from the Spartan and the wounded sniper. Ray admired the courage of the ODST's, regardless of his mostly strained relationship with them. They didn't have the training, augmentation and the Mjolnir armor like the Spartans had, yet still fought hard and got things done not worse than a Spartan could. He wasn't that sure about Richkov though, he didn't doubt his bravery but it just might be bad luck on his part by having the attention of the hunters. Standing up he turned his attention to the second brute who was aiming at the ODST with his Spiker but before the alien could open fire, or the Spartan could pull the trigger to stop it, Keth materialized behind him with a shimmering blue plasma sword in his hand and drove it into the brute's back.

Seeing that Keth was handling everything without any trouble he turned to one of the hunters who by sheer luck had his back to the Spartan. Clearing the distance between them in a moment he primed a frag grenade and took hold of the protective plate on the hunters back while avoiding the spikes on the alien's back. Pulling the plate with all his might, which was considerable, the plate finally gave way, exposing the worms that composed the hunter's body. Showing the frag with a punch into the body, he jumped back just as the hunter turned around. Ray sprinted away, wishing to put as much distance as possible between himself and the massive alien. The hunter raised its arm-mounted cannon and started to charge it but before he could finish the task he exploded in a fountain of orange blood, dead worms and the smell of burning plastic.

The dead hunter's bond brother sent a keening cry at the sight and charged Ray, the trees that were getting in his way having as much effect as weeds to slow him down. The Spartan jumped out of the way before the hunter could crush him and ducked under a sideward swing of the hunter's shield arm. As Ray backpedalled away from the hunter he drew his still unused shotgun and fire twice at the face of the massive tank of an alien. The shots didn't have much effect, other than pissing him off further than needed, but Ray salvation came in the form of a frag grenade landing right between the hunter's legs.

The grenade blew up, sending dirt and half vaporized snow into the air but not killing the hunter, just dazing it. Ray ran around the hunter, who clumsily tried to turn around, obviously still dazed, and raised his shotgun and aimed at the back of the hunter. The protective plate over the hunter's back buckled under the punishment and a small hole was punched through. To his disappointment he found out that he was out of grenades and his hobby of blowing up hunters from the inside will have to wait. Instead, he simply shoved the barrel of the shotgun into the hole and pulled the trigger. The hunter roared, more like vibrated in pain, or rage as a shot was fired and was followed by another. The shotgun finally clicked empty and Ray pulled out the now bloodied barrel out of the hunters back, shaking off a couple of dead worms that were stuck to the barrel.

The hunter tried swinging its massive shield arm at the Spartan but he was already out of reach. The massive hulking alien then made a few lumbering steps but stumbled and fell to the ground with a weak, keening cry, never to get up again.

Ray breathed a sigh of relief when he was sure the hunter was dead and he quickly reloaded his shotgun, or at least tried to. When he loaded the fifth round a raging roar caught his attention and he turned to see a brute charging at him. Not just a brute, but a brute chieftain, if the gravity hammer was any indication. The BK was charging at high speeds, even smashing a pair of grunts that got in his way with his hammer. Ray failed to see the reason for such behavior, but then again, he didn't really care. Stopping his reloading process he turned to meet the brute head-on. He shot him once, damaging the shields, and then another time but the brute was already in range. Ray rolled out of the way as the hammer hit the ground, sending a tremor through it, and unleashed another shot, bringing down the chieftains shields further down. The chieftain than swung his arm sideward, intending to hit the Spartan in the head but Ray just dropped low, too low for the hammer to do its intended job, and shot once more, this time in point blank range.

The power armor sparked and several wisps of smoke started coming out from several locations and finally, then a small spark of energy the shields dropped. The chieftain, now completely enraged and seemingly berserk now, lifted the hammer above its head with a cry that carried the entire brute's fury and brought the hammer down. "I will feast upon your bones, Demon!" The chieftain roared.

Ray jumped inside the Chieftain's arcing strike and with a swift motion drew his old and much used combat knife. Just as the brute brought down the hammer Ray slashed the armpit of the brute, creating a wide gash from which dark blood started spilling in frightening quantities, and from there, with a twisting movement ended behind the chieftain and slashed another wide gash of the back of the alien's thick neck. The hammer dropped down with a thud and the brute followed it closely behind, but it was not dead yet. Climbing to its knees with its remaining hand it snarled at the Spartan, who casually stood there, returning the knife to its rightful place on his shoulder plate. Before the Brute could say anything else, the Spartan raised his shotgun, which had only a single shot left, and placed the barrel between the eyes of the chieftain and without wasting time, pulled the trigger.

The chieftain fell to the ground; half of its head missing and Ray silently placed his shotgun on his back and inspected what was once a small cluster of trees. The grunts and jackals were at complete disarray and Keth and Silver were taking them down. Ray took note that the Sangheili was no longer cloaked, instead standing in the open, firing with his newly acquired plasma rifle while clutching his plasma sword with the other. There was only one brute left and he saw that he held Richkov pinned down behind a tree as the brute was firing his twin spikers. Ray picked up the chieftains hammer and charged the remaining brute, in an odd turn of events smashing a grunt out of his way just like the chieftain did only moments ago.

Richkov was in a crappy situation. First the hunters and now this bat-shit insane brute who duel-wielded the spikers and reloaded so fast that he had to be a freak of nature. He didn't even manage to get more than a dozen shots at the BK, barely scratching his energy shields, before he was showered with those damn super-heated spikers. He cursed under his breath as he blindly fire from behind the tree he was using as cover, attempting to hit the brute. When his SMG finally clicked empty he was about to pull another clip, preparing to use it when a sharp sound snapping wood, followed by a sharp, burning and agonizing pain assaulted his lower back. Looking down, he saw the tip of the spiker round, still glowing red from the heating, protruding from his stomach. Clicking the pieces together he came to a conclusion: The bastard managed to get a shot through the tree!

Groaning in pain, he tried turning around and reload his weapon and show the overgrown gorilla a piece of his mind when the tree he was using as cover suddenly exploded in a shower of splinters. Richkov landed on the ground, crying in pain when he landed on his stomach, moving the still hot spiker in his wound. Rolling to his back with a pained groan he saw the brute standing over his, aiming one of his spikers at the head. Richkov tried doing something, roll away from the shot, kick the knee-cap of the brute, perhaps even shattering it, reaching for his pistol but he couldn't do any of these, the pain in his stomach was almost paralyzing.

The brute watched him for a moment, a sick grin spreading across his ugly face as he pulled the trigger, or at least tried to. Richkov saw the brute's head suddenly snap to the side at an impossible angle and then the whole body followed suit as the brute was send several feet through the air to land somewhere around five meters from him. Turning his head to see what the hell hit him he was rather surprised to see the grey armored Spartan standing there, holding the chieftain's hammer in his hand.

"Fuck… please remind me not to go with you anywhere, you're not as fun as I thought," Richkov said in a strained, pain-filled voice, "Not sure 'bout he Covvies though, they seem to like you, judging by how many came to greet you."

Ray chuckled, though no one could hear it outside his helmet. "Don't worry private, we'll get you out of here," he said, looking at the wound. He saw such wounds before and he knew that they were that lethal if they were treated fast though they didn't have such luxury here. If they wanted Richkov to stay alive, they needed to get him real medical attention ASAP. Grabbing the helljumper by the shoulder he dragged him behind some rocks as several plasma bolts hit him in the back but didn't cause any damage. Crouching down next to the private, placing the hammer next to him he pulled out a can of bio-foam.

"Keth, Silver, give me cover!" Ray ordered and saw the elite charge the group of grunts that shot him in the back, cutting them down with his blade and shooting several with his plasma rifle. A jackal lost his head as a high caliber round passed through it.

The Spartan quickly yanked the spike out of the wound, getting a pained cry from Richkov as a response.

"Silver, that son of a bitch, I'm going to kill him! Where the fuck was he when I needed cover?" the private growled through clenched teeth as Ray filled the wound with the burning but necessary substance.

"_You were out of my sight and I was making sure the freaking alien parrots won't blast a fucking hole in your heads!"_ Silver shouted back, still within his cover. Ray looked at the battlefield, seeing that Keth was almost done and the number of hostiles they were facing dwindled to just ten.

"Spartan, incoming banshees!" Leyla warned through the com, surprising Ray. Leyla was unusually silent during their battle and he forgot that she was even there.

Listening carefully he could clearly hear the familiar wail of a banshee. Looking up he saw the three vehicles, making their way to them at top speed. Ray quickly though of their options. They couldn't outrun the banshees, they didn't have a vehicle and considering they had three wounded, their chances of escape were less than slim. That left him with only one option: trying to shoot them down, before they will kill them with bombardment. He took out his battle rifle and prepared himself for some hellish experience.

Richkov summed up the rest of his thoughts: "Shit."  


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**Yeah! I think this chapter was rather awesome. For those who dont know, 'BK' means Bravo Kilo - AKA Baby Kong. Just mentioning it, thats all. Anyway, ill try my hardest to update the story by next week, just like i did a month ago but i cant promise anything, i might be busy since my RL really became a pain in the ass lately. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i did and feel free to tell me what you think of the story, opinions, custructive criticism and even suggestions! Thank you for reading this and thanks to all the reviewers who showed me their support! :) Hopefully, 'till next week! **


	6. The Scavengers

**Okay, IM ALIVE! Yeah, im back and this time i hope for a longer period without dissapearing again. I've been rather busy doing...nothing really, just had a major writing crisis and wasnt able to write a sentance without freezing and being unable to write anything. Anyway, im back and this new rewrite chapter is...A LOT shorter than usual. I think its even shorter than before but no worries, the next chapter (or the one after it) will be much longer.**

Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!

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1625 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / Mountain / "Spartan's Hill"

"Fuuuck!" Richkov screamed with all his might as he was lifted up from the ground, placed over the Spartan's shoulder and then was forced to endure the Spartan's mad dash just as the place they were occupying mere seconds ago was turned to burned glass.

Ray just kept running, ignoring the shouting Helljumper he carried – who was mouthing every obscenity he knew – trying to shoot down the banshees with his battle rifle every chance he had to turn around. Trying to shoot down a banshee with a battle rifle was hard, simply because the BR55 rounds didn't have the penetration force required to penetrate the hull. It was possible to bring one down but that usually involved shooting a clip or two at the flyers. Now, considering the fact that he had to shoot the rifle with one hand, that he had a squirming ODST on his shoulder and that there were three banshees, this probably brought the phrase 'The shit hit the fan" to a whole new level. To make matters worse, there were still those annoying grunts and jackals running around through the smoke-filled battleground, occasionally shooting at him or his teammates.

The good thing was that the smoke somewhat hid his position. The green orbs of death, as the marines dubbed them, still exploded too close to him to his likings but it was better than being hit. Other than that…he couldn't find anything 'good' in this situation.

He finally reached the hill they barricaded, shooting a pair of grunts that tried to climb it in the process, and with three steps quickly reached the top, lowering down Richkov who still didn't quiet down.

Keth was dealing with the ground forces, rather systematically he could say and Silver was alternating between the ground forces and the flying banshees overhead. Another fuel rod bolt hit the ground next to them, showering them with dirt and glass, much to close to his likings. Acting quickly, he raised his rifle and aimed with the scope. While the rounds won't be as effective as the high caliber sniper round, you could destroy a banshee even with a pistol if you could place a very well aimed shot. Luckily for Ray, he knew exactly where to aim and he had something better than a handgun.

He took aim at the closest banshee, which just finished turning around for another dive and was now heading straight to him. Ray took his time, waiting for the banshee to be a bit closer and to make sure his aim was true. It was like a game of chicken in his opinion. He didn't know why he thought of that, since it was nothing like the game he heard marines talk about. He waited for the right moment, tightening his grip on the rifle, watching as the banshee got closer and closer and then, just as he saw the green light beginning to show on the banshee's cannon, he pulled the trigger. A three-round burst came out, whistling through the air and reaching the banshee at sonic speed. His aim proved true as two of the three rounds connected with the small wing on the banshee's side and just before the banshee released the shot the wing caused the banshee to swerve to the side, causing the shot to miss in a horrifying manner.

The banshee, now lost without most of it steering abilities, crashed into the side of the mountain with a fiery explosion. Ray smirked to himself at the display but his celebration was cut short when the remaining two banshees flew over him and the ground around him blew up in a flash of green. Unbearable heat washed over him, the empty shields alert drowning his ears. He quickly ran behind one of their remaining – and intact – barricades to wait until his shields replenished.

The banshees flew overhead, circling around, like a pair of vultures and when they finally turned around they entered a low glide to line themselves up with their targets, flying down at them side by side, raining plasma bolts down on them. Ray saw all this and threw all plans out of the window. Raising his battle rifle, switching it to full-auto in the process, he opened fire. The bullets pinged against the hull but did no real damage to stop their descent. Ray was about to jump down the hill at an attempt to avoid the explosion that will follow but as soon as that thought crossed his mind, against all expectations, one of the banshees exploded and the second banshee swerved aside to avoid being hit by the characteristic green projectile of a banshee.

The Spartan was looking up in semi-bafflement, quickly accompanied by Keth and Silver, as the last enemy banshee was quickly brought down in a fiery doom by a trio of the newly-arrived banshees and the sound of gunfire and engines came to his ears.

"Spartan, incoming UNSC tags," Leyla announced but it was unneeded when he saw a trio of warthogs drive into the clearing, guns and engines roaring.

"Let's move!" Ray ordered his team as he saw friendly forces moving their way. Silver quickly climbed down, nearly falling down because of his injured leg a couple of times but eventually he got down in one piece. Keth was already moving, surprisingly carrying the raging Richkov in one arm while using the other one to shoot down any remaining grunts and jackals. Ray quickly reached the immobile Artemis and hefted her over one shoulder with a grunt.

"Ray, I've noticed something strange," Leyla said in his helmets speakers as they made their way down the hill.

"Yes?"

"I cannot identify half of the UNSC soldiers you see before you," she explained as the familiar and very welcomed sound of a pelican dropship engines roared above them.

"Meaning?" he asked, already coming to a conclusion.

"Half of these people don't have the standard friendly/foe tags that all UNSC personnel have. This means that they are civilians," she explained and the Spartan nodded, even though she couldn't see it.

He wasn't very much surprised. It happened before. He already visited planets where the civilians arranged some sort of a militia or in the worst case, replaced the marines there. It wasn't all uncommon for civvies to arrange a partisan movement against an occupying covenant force, he'd seen that already, but that usually lasted until they glassed the planet or systematically wiped out the human presence on the planet. The most common tactic was guerilla warfare, since usually the civvies were not equipped and trained for a full scale open battle and he guessed that this group was the same when he managed to inspect them when he was closer.

Most of the group was, for a lack of a better word, mismatched. Nearly half of them wore a uniform, ranging from a marines to an ODST's while the other half were wearing simple civilians warm clothes to protect themselves from the cold. The weapons they were using were ranging from a handgun to a plasma rifle. Just from looking at them it was pretty obvious that they used whatever they could.

Of course, it wasn't as if they didn't have help, if the phantom dropship that was hovering overhead and the single sangheili major who was with the group was any indication. It seemed that the elites sided up with the humans here.

The pelican landed near the warthogs and Ray could see several soldiers, obviously wounded from their appearance, inside. One of the men, who wore a civilian doctor uniform, waved them to bring the wounded. Keth walked to them and handed them the cursing Richkov while Ray placed Artemis on the pelican's floor. When the doctor couldn't drag her in another pair of men in the same uniform helped him. Silver didn't need any help as he simply jumped in, avoiding placing weight on his injured leg. Soon after that the pelican started rising into the air and Silver gave them a wave as they disappeared into the grey clouds.

"Don't worry, they're in good hands," said a voice behind him and Ray turned to look at a woman.

She stood around six and a half feet tall, wore ODST battle armor and held an MA5C. She slung the rifle over her shoulder and removed her helmet; revealing shoulder-length brown hair and a tired face that made her look older than she was. "What do we have here, a bloody Spartan of all things," she said as her eyes looked over the giant in grey armor.

"Ma'am," he said and gave her a nod. Keth sent them a look and moved to the warthogs, apparently starting a conversation with the elite major who watched him with a weary eye.

"You can call me Jennifer, and you are?" she said unsurely and Ray noticed her eyes traveling from one battle-scar on his armor to another. He understood that she was trying to be polite and while the Spartan had some encounters with civilians they weren't of the…comfortable kind. They usually bordered on annoying and awkward.

"Spartan-128, may I know the situation here?" he asked her, trying to end the awkward silence and to get out of here before many more of the soldiers started gawking at him.

"Ah," she said when he finished but simply shrugged and led him to the 'hogs. "Do you want the honest or the sugarcoated version?" she asked as she climbed into the driver seat of the lead vehicle.

"I prefer to know what's going on," he said as he sat in the seat next to her. They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching as the phantom dropship deployed a score of grunts who began picking up every piece of working equipment they could find.

"We're in deep shit," Jennifer finally said and revved up the engine, followed by the others. "We are running out of ammunition, weapons and soldiers. We barely have any real soldiers left and other than the aliens we don't have much experienced fighters left alive," she explained glumly as they started to descend down the road.

"Now though, with your arrival I believe we will have a larger chance of surviving this," she said and this time Ray could pick up hope in her voice.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, curious.

"They arrived back in 2552, our forces were utterly decimated. The civilians were evacuated and we thought that any moment now the planet will be glassed," she said as she looked at the distance. "As you can see, they didn't do that. They were searching for something but I'll explain that later, now's not the time for this. Lieutenant Hawthorne keeps saying this stuff is classified and shouldn't be told to civilians," she said bitterly.

"This is impressive. They survived for over five years under covenant occupancy," Leyla commented in his helmet.

"Yet, you know of this," Ray stated, raising an eyebrow at her bitter voice.

"I'm sort of in charge of the civilian forces. My husband was a colonel and I learned a thing or two from him. They respect me to some degree and they trust me to keep my mouth shut when needed."

"I see," he said and a silence soon followed.

The small caravan of 'hogs rode down the snow covered road and Ray took note of the still burning wraith tanks and other severely damaged covenant vehicles that weren't there when they climbed the mountain an hour earlier. Several banshees, friendly ones, flew overhead and quickly disappeared into the distance. The planet seemed buzzing with activity now, unlike when they crashed. He could still hear the occasional far-away explosion, or see some distant plasma bolt in the sky that badly missed whatever it was shooting.

"How did you find us?" the Spartan asked the driver.

"It wasn't that hard. They nearly raised a damn army to take you out and all the smoke on that mountain was a dead give away. You're lucky we managed to respond in time and attack them in several positions at the same time; otherwise you would've been overrun," she explained.

"They seem to be very organized," Leyla commented again, "I would guess that they use guerilla tactics, ambushes, distractions…pretty much everything in the book."

"Someone trains them, otherwise they wouldn't have survived for five years here," Ray replied.

"I agree, I assume they use the remaining experienced UNSC soldiers they have to train new recruits," Leyla agreed.

"How does your war against the covenant is going?" Ray asked Jennifer, wanting to hear what she could say. Jennifer turned the warthog away from the road and sent the Spartan a glance.

"Not that well. We're surviving, that's what matters. We aren't close to defeating them; at best we can harass them until they leave us alone for a while. They even named us!" she said with a smile as she led the other vehicles after her through the uneven rocky ground. "They call us The Scavengers as we learned from some captured prisoners."

"Prisoners?" Ray asked. It was rather uncommon to capture a covenant trooper. In all his military career, he heard only about three captured aliens and none of them were important in any way to the general hierarchic structure of the covenant.

"Grunts mostly, Brutes are not exactly prisoner material and jackals…well, let's say I'm not fond of being gnawed at," she said with a chuckle. "They gave us that name because whenever we eliminate a patrol or any other group, when the covvies arrive they find only bodies, stripped away from their gear. Not many of our people like that but it's necessary," she explained.

Ray nodded. He couldn't even remember how many times he ran out of ammo or had his weapon damaged and had to commandeer a covenant weapon…or vehicle in some other cases. Jennifer steered the warthog into a cave and stopped at the mouth of it. Ray was about to ask why they stopped when he noticed a pair of human shapes in the snow. Said pair of shapes turned out to be a pair of soldiers, all wearing white overcoats stood up from the snow, which completely hid them. The Spartan had to raise an eyebrow at that, half impressed and half annoyed. While he was impressed that they managed to hide in plain sight, he had to scoff at the plan. Even a grunt, if close enough could spot them.

"Are we the last ones?" Jennifer asked one of the soldiers who approached them. Ray couldn't see where the man was looking, due to the tinted goggles (of all things) he wore but he could almost feel his stare on him.

"Yeah, the others entered through the third and fourth entrance. The first entrance is already sealed," the man replied.

"Good, after we pass seal this entrance and head back to base," she said and they started moving again.

"Yes ma'am…" the man muttered, too weakly for anyone else but the Spartan to hear.

"Poor guys have to sit in that cold for hours until we return," Jennifer muttered with a frown.

They continued riding through the tunnels, occasionally turning a nearly impossible turn or without warning turning into another side tunnel. Meanwhile, Ray was inspecting the tunnels itself.

"Interesting, looks like half these tunnels these tunnels are natural but some are man-made but if you look carefully, you will see that the differences are barely there. The walls and ceiling are too smooth to be natural but the floor on the other hand is ragged just like it should be in a natural cavern," Leyla said.

"So what do you think about it?" Ray asked her.

"Either these civvies know how to burrow tunnels like professionals or that these tunnels were here even before the colonists, a theory that I approve of considering the appearance of the tunnel itself. It looks ancient," she explained.

Ray had to agree. Cracks went through the walls and ceilings and their vehicles kicked large clouds of dust wherever they passed. Some stalagmites and stalactites jutted out of the ground and ceiling, dripping small drops of water on the ground. They even passed through an enormous cavern with an underground lake and some odd fungi that glowed in the dark.

"We have to be careful so we will not be followed. Not take any chances," Jennifer answered an unasked question when they did another sharp turn. "Bravo base already paid the price for carelessness. The covvies managed to follow them and the whole base was destroyed," she said bitterly.

"Interesting, they are more organized than I thought. Planning escape routes, covering their tracks and sealing the routes they took," Leyla exclaimed.

"Leyla, they are not savages, stop being so surprised. They had people training them and the need to survive makes people do some amazing things," Ray replied with a roll of his eyes.

"That might be true but most civilians cower and try to save their own hides whenever a covenant invasion is confirmed."

"Yes, but don't forget that they've been here for five years. They have no where to run and this is their home," he muttered, familiar with the feeling of being trapped on a planet, surrounded by enemies. Reach came up in that category as well. He shook his head to clear it from the painful thoughts of his lost home.

The next fifteen minutes passed in utter silence, save for the sound of the engine and the silent conversation of the two elites in the vehicle behind them. Eventually they stopped taking turns and continued on a straight path until they reached a dead end.

"Steve, open up, it's me Jennifer," the woman said into her comm. line.

"What's the password?" A young male voice asked back.

"Steve, cut the crap. Open the damn door," the woman nearly shouted back.

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a twist…" the young man muttered and a loud hiss was heard in the tunnel.

Ray looked at the stone wall only to see it sliding back and then slowly rising into the ceiling. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was a very thick titanium door with the outer side covered by rock, or a similar substance.

"Impressive, old styled, but impressive nonetheless!" Leyla remarked.

Ray had to agree. Most of the UNSC bases he saw were practical and simple. This base was built to remain hidden, though he couldn't be sure if the stone on the gate was added after the invasion or before. Either way, it was impressive.

"Welcome to Alpha base, make yourself at home," Jennifer said with a smile as she drove the warthog inside.

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**Okay...this chapter is done. I'm glad i've been finally able to write something, now that its over. I've also been working on my own original story (which you will hear about soon enough) so it took a bit of my time as well. Damn writer blocks. Hopefully, ill be able to write without another one occuring any time soon.**

Thank you for reading this story, contrustive criticism is welcomed and so are suggestions, opinions and just plain old comments and pointing out mistakes. I'm glad that you enjoy reading my story. Until next time, Delvaro out.


	7. Alpha Base

**Okay, once again i am back! Sorry for the great delay but i was really busy and will still be busy with preparing for the exams, which i plan to pass. I hope i will be able to post the next chapter soon enough, but we will see about it, not sure with my wierd time table. Anyway, this chapter had major changes, as you will likely see. Unfortunately, the chapter is only slightly longer, and not as long as i wouldve liked but at least it give more insight on Ray's past :) So, without further delays, here is the new chapter of SOA.**

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1810 Hours, September 24, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / Alpha base.

The Spartan silently observed the hallways, which was wide enough to let two scorpion tanks drive through side by side, and filed small details into the back of his mind. So far he counted seven security cameras, several battle ready barricades and at least three dozens of armed men and women standing behind said barricades. The soldiers, if he could call them such since he only saw six IFF tags out of the three dozens – which indicated the others being civilians – all greeted them with a nod and allowed them to pass without further stops, although Ray noticed how more than a few sent awestruck and curius glances his way.

He heard some rumbling and turned to see the large hidden door they passed through close behind them as the last of their small caravan entered the base. The hallway took some turns, their caravan passing through two more barricades until they eventually came to a stop on a large elevator. They waited in silence for several minutes when a humming sound broke the silence and they started their descent further into the mountain.

"So...how is the war?" Jennifer asked, a tone of hesitation in her voice. Ray eyed her for a second, understanding the hesitation.

Years ago, during the way, whenever they returned from a mission they would ask for the situation, each time fearing to know how many colonies the covenant sacked this time. Closer to the end of the war he simply stopped asking, mostly because there weren't that many planets left to glass and that it was bloody obvious how the war effort was going.

"The war is over. Mostly," he replied, resuming to look at the ascending walls as they slowly made their way down.

"I heard of that, from the Elites mostly but I guess I just needed to hear this from one of our own..." she muttered the last part, her voice barely heard above the humming sound of the elevator.

Just then the elevator came to halt in front of a short corridor. Jennifer drove the warthog through it and soon enough they came onto a large chamber, more like a crowded parking lot if how it looked right now was any indication. Over three dozens of warthogs were already parked there, including several covenant ghosts. Ray spotted three scorpion tanks and a wraith tank in one of the corners. Many more vehicles, like the mongoose and the covenant specter were parked around the large room.

But what surprised Ray more than the number of vehicles parked there, both covenant and human, was the number of people there. Human and alien alike all carried various crates, bags and other items, most likely into the base. Some Elites even helped some humans carry the heavier items. Some grunts ran here and there, carrying duffel bags stuffed with weapons. He even spotted a jackal carrying what he believed to be a piece of a warthog's engine. All in all, this garage was bustling with life, both human and alien. He spotted two more wide hallways, just like the one they just entered through, most likely leading to its own elevator and its own set of caverns.

Jennifer parked the vehicle and the other 'hogs soon followed. She jumped out of the vehicle and motioned the Spartan to follow her. Immediately when they parked several people approached the vehicles and started taking the various weapons they picked up and stuffed them into duffel bags or just carried them off in their own hands.

Ray silently followed the woman, looking around. Most of the people gave them – him, if the looks were any indication – a wide berth, allowing them to move through the crowd without problems although they did have to move aside when a Sangheili helping a human soldier with a leg wound passed them by. In some weird logic, all of it seemed simply...off to the Spartan. The simple fact that the aliens were now staying in a UNSC base of all things somewhat grated on his nerves. He wasn't exactly comfortable near the elites, he doubted any human was and will be for a long time. They did attempted and nearly succeeded in committing genocide and he doubted that people will ever forget that. He killed perhaps hundreds, if not thousands of Sangheili alone and some of the Unggoy who happened to get close to him scampered away in fear indicated that he killed a lot more of the smaller aliens. He hated them, for what they did to humanity, for what they did to Reach, for what they did to his team...but for the good of humanity he will tolerate them. The Sangheili alone nearly suffered the same fate as humanity and while that did earn the a few extremely rare sympathetic glances from humans, the majority still hated their guts, but tolerated them mostly due to the fact that without them humanity would've perished against the flood and the covenant combined.

Although he had to admit that he sometimes even _enjoyed_ fighting alongside the Elites, mostly due to their professional nature and them being extremely capable fighters. One Sangheili even told him once that many members of their race always wondered why humanity wasn't offered a place in the Covenant since humanity proved their battle prowess more than enough times against impossible odds. He supposed he could take that as a compliment and while he didn't really like them (he supposed the feeling was mutual regarding him, as the 'Demon' nickname stuck to him) it was a rather...new experience to him to be fighting with them and not against them.

Jennifer seemed to catch the glances he gave the aliens that occupied the garage and most likely guessed his thoughts. "Around three years ago a covenant corvette crashed here...at first we couldn't figure out why. Why would they crash their own allies? After a while we started to notice a major difference in their ranks, mostly being there were three factions on the planet now, that being us, the Brutes and the Elites," she explained as she lead the way through the mostly populated hallways. "We had a few scuffles with the Elites until some two years ago they attempted to make civilized contact with us. To tell you the truth we were shocked at first to hear that we sided with the same guys who slaughtered us for nearly three decades and we believed it was just a freaking ruse to locate our base," she paused as they stopped near an elevator and she pressed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive.

"I understand. Some of us still have trouble dealing with the Elites, even though we don't need to shoot them now," Ray replied.

"Same thing here," she commented as the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. "It took us nearly a year to start at least believing what they told us, since they did offer us armed support against the brutes, whether we asked for it or not and I must say that they saved our asses more than once," she finished as the elevator stopped and they stepped outside.

So far Ray was rather impressed with the base. For a base run by civvies, it was rather militarized, most like supervised by the remaining military personnel on the planet. This floor was made from a series of intersecting corridors, with a number of rooms between each corridor. Jennifer lead the Spartan to one of the farthest rooms from the elevator and entered, motioning him to follow.

The room inside, or rather office, was rather spartan. It had a single table, three chairs, a computer and a small holo-pad in one of the corners. What interested the Spartan more was the ragged looking Captain Pavlov who was occupying one of the chairs.

"Spartan! I'm glad to see that you're alive!" Pavlov greeted with a smile as he stood up and Ray noticed a small gash above his right brow, with a thin line of dried blood trailing down the side of his face. Ray offered a crisp solute but the haggard captain simply waved him off.

"Bah, at ease, at ease. You wouldn't believe the crap I lived through right now. First we crash land and then we crawl through the bloody snow, not that I mind since I grew up on a snowy planet but my uniform is not exactly made for this climate, but then we also have to crawl in the snow while the Loyalists look for us. We were caught and were trying to fend them off when these lovely people showed up and escorted us to this lovely base. Up until that point it was a living hell, now I remember why I joined the navy..."

"Captain, the Spartan and a handful of people were fending of a literal army at a dead end until we managed to help them," Jennifer mentioned.

"Really? Meh, its a walk in the park for him, I saw him go through situation worse than that at least a dozen times, and he was 'catching a ride' on my ship for almost a decade now," Pavlov explained offhandedly, as if he was not impressed by the Spartan's amazing skills.

"Good to see you too, Captain," Ray said, a small smile forming as the Captain rambled on. Ray pulled out Leyla's chip and handed it to the Captain, who took it eagerly and inserted it into the holopad.

"Now, I recall there were two of you. Where is your companion?" the Captain asked as Leyla's avatar popped into view.

"She injured by a hunter. She is currently in the medical wing, treated for heavy burns but she will live," Leyla explained quickly, he avatar stretching her arms. "Not to offend you, but your head is a bit cramped..."

"No offense taken," Ray replied with a nod to the AI. He turned to Jennifer. "What is the situation on the planet?" he asked.

"I'll get to the point, you must be tired and you," she pointed at the Captain, specifically at his head wound, "should probably check your head with the doctors."

"My head is crystal clear," Pavlov assured.

"Anyway, ill be honest. We're in deep shit and now you're in it too. We have no way out of this planet but now, when we have two Spartans and some...unexpected reinforcements, we might have a chance to get out here. Our timetable is limited. Our scouts have confirmed that the ship that followed you here is currently docking for repairs so we don't have much time before it leaves," she explained.

"You're planning to capture the ship," Ray stated.

"Correct, but its a lot more complicated than that. If that was that easy, we would've got away from this rock years ago."

"I take it that you are talking about the reason why we crashed in the first place?" Pavlov interjected.

"Exactly. There was something on this planet, a facility of sorts that was here way before us. We don't know much about it other than the fact that you wont be able to leave the planet's atmosphere as long as that place is occupied by the enemy. If it can pull you into the atmosphere from orbit, then it can keep you from leaving it as well."

"Fascinating, a facility used to control gravity to a certain degree," Leyla remarked, stroking her chin in thought.

"You did mention that you encountered a gravitational field when we left slipspace," Pavlov said and received a nod from the AI, "It has to be that facility then. The only thing I can think of that can cause gravitational distortions like that are black holes and there aren't any on the area," he finished with a frown.

"That facility...it was here long before we arrived. When the covenant first invaded we saw them dig it out. Also some of the underground tunnels...some of the span miles upon miles. Some of our scientists, before the invasion, suspected that these tunnels spanned the whole planet but we never managed to map them. The thing about them is that most of them looked artificial, almost man made, but they are still ancient." Jennifer explained.

A single thought crossed Ray's mind. _'Forerunners...' _he summarized. There was only a single reason for the covenant to capture planets, something that they never did, and it only happened whenever a Forerunner artifact was on the planet.

"At least one good thing came out of it," the woman continued. "They didn't glass the planet and I suspect the facility had something to do with it. For that I am thankful."

"So what is our plan?" Ray asked.

"We already have a plan but we will speak of it tomorrow. Now, I believe that you two deserve some rest and I will prefer to catch some needed sleep as well. We will discuss our plans tomorrow and the ship wont go anywhere, they have a bloody hole going through the ship after all," she said with a smirk. "You can take up one of the empty rooms on this floor," she said to the Spartan. "and you," she turned to the Captain, "need to go to the infirmary to check up your head wound."

"Fine, fine, ill go and check up my head," Pavlov said, frowning. "Spartan, go and get some rest."

The Spartan understood that he was dismissed, offered a quick salute and left the room. Once he was in the hallways he moved about, looking through some of the rooms, accidentally surprising and startling the occupants on one room. His comm. Crackled with static before Leyla's voice broke in.

"Ray, I have a vacant room for you, I placed a NAV marker for you," she said cheerily. Ray simply huffed in annoyance. This floor was big but he didn't need the help of an AI to find a vacant room. Nevertheless, he was quite happy that he wont have to go on and peek in every room to see if it was vacant.

He quickly located the room with the help of the NAV marker and entered. This room was rather spartan as well. It had a pair of bunks, a pair of nightstands and a holo-tank. Another door was in the farthest room and he guessed that it was where the shower and bathroom were. Locking the door behind him he proceeded to remove his helmet and then the rest of the armor. It took him a while but soon enough he was out of his armor, which he dumped on the second and empty bunk, which buckled under the weight but held.

He found a UNSC uniform, which was a bit small on him, even if he was one of the smallest Spartans, but it will do until he could get a uniform of the proper size. He looked at the armor for several moments, contemplating on it. He would need to arrange some repairs for the armor and since no one here was authorized to even touch the Mark VI, he would have to repair it by himself, unless the _Maria's_ engineer survived. He had the authorization and he could use the old engineer's help.

His gaze paused at the chest compartment. His eyes were glued to that spot for several moments until he approached the armor, opened the compartment and took out a photo. It was an old photo and rather battered photo, one of the corners was torn off, and it has several tiny tears on one side. On the photo were a trio of Spartans, fully armored and armed, walking through a street in a ruined city. He remembered that day as if it only happened yesterday.

They were helping with the evacuation of one colony, which was no lost to them, by holding off the covenant. During their passage through the city one civilian who stayed in the city decided to take a photo of the unknown warriors. At that time the Spartans were still unknown to the public and thus Zack 'politely' confiscated the camera and pointed the civilian to the closest evac site. For some reason Zack decided to keep the photo. He just kept staring at the photo as the minutes passed, lost in thoughts and old memories.

* * *

_He was running through the camp, for how long he couldn't be sure. His legs didn't hurt anymore, in fact he wasn't sure if they were even attached by this point. He didn't have a watch, nor could he see a clock anywhere but he was sure that he started running when the sun was low on the sky, and now it was high above him. He also realized that he was lagging behind the other seven-year old would-be supersoldiers._

_Sweat dripped down his face by the gallons, stinging his eyes and he was starting to stumble every second step. He knew that it will be worse if he will lag behind the other and so he decided to catch up with them. He put more speed into his running but by the fifth step he miscalculated the next one and ended up falling flat on his face._

_He just lied there, face in the dirt, trying to catch the air his lungs were demanding. His heartbeat drowned the other sounds his ears caught but he did manage to catch the sound of heavy footsteps._

"_Get up," ordered a gruff voice. He didn't even need to look up to know that it was one of their trainers, and one of the nasty ones as well._

"_J-just a minute...need to catch my breath," Ray panted as he raised his head to see the retreating backs of his comrades._

_The trainers reply didn't come as words though. Instead, Ray felt a sharp pain in his side as a boot smashed into his ribs. All the air that was left in his lungs was blasted away with that kick and Ray was sure that he felt something crack in his ribs. He rolled to his side with a shout of pain and coughed as he tried to regain his breath._

"_Do you think the enemy will let you catch your breath during a battle? I ordered you to stand up!" The man roared, raising one of those awful tools they used on them, the shock sticks._

_Ray tried to climb on his feet but he didn't have much luck as the trainer launched another kick to his ribs causing Ray to once again fall to the ground in pain._

"_Not fast enough!" the man roared again, this time preparing to use the shock stick._

_Much to the man's surprise, and Ray's, a blur suddenly slammed into the back of the man's knee, causing the man to drop to the ground. Ray could only stare dumbly as a black haired boy, he couldn't remember his name or that he even knew it to begin with, attempted to punch the man in the face, but due to the lack of weight behind the blow, mostly due to him being a seven year old kid attempting to punch a fully grown man with military training, didn't cause much damage. The trainer simply threw a right hook into the boy's face._

_The boy fell off the man with a loud smack. The man stood up and approached the black haired boy and Ray knew that it wont end well for the other boy. A long and black shape caught his eye and he fully turned his head to see the shock stick. He weighted his options, how it might end up for both him and his rescuer. When he saw the man ready another kick, and he decided. Quickly grabbing the shock stick, already knowing how to use it from seeing it in action relatively often._

_The man was about to deliver a kick to the black haired kid when he suddenly felt an intense shock going through his leg and he lost his balance and dropped to the floor, his shocked leg convulsing. He turned to see the kid who was lagging behind, brandishing his dropped shock stick, already mid strike and too late for him to block._

_Ray hit him in the neck this time, causing the man to scream for several seconds before he was finally silenced. Ray took a cautious step back, wondering if the man still alive when he felt and intense pain course through the back of his neck. He lost grip on his policed shock stick and soon after that he felt something heavy hit him in the back and the next moment he found himself back on the ground, in front of the black haired boy. He just lied there, in too much pain to move again, knowing that he shouldn't try getting up again if he wanted to stay in one piece._

_Another pair of feet entered his field of vision as they dragged the now unconscious trainer away from them, leaving the two alone. Ray looked at the boy who helped him, noticing his bloody and swollen lip. The boy seemed to chew on something before he spat out something. That something, Ray noticed, was a bloody tooth._

"_Ow..." the buy muttered, rubbing his aching cheek, before he looked at Ray and broke out in a massive and bloody grin, which was now missing a tooth._

"_I'm Zack," he finally said. Ray couldn't help but grin back. There was something infectious in that grin of his._

"_Ray," he replied with the same grin._

_The other Spartan candidates passed them by in another lap, most of the sending them confused and questioning looks. Ray and Zack just kept laying there, catching their breath from their beating. One girl broke away from the group and attempted to lift Zack but he was bigger than her and she had no success in her attempts. The girl had short blond hair and she was shorter than Zack by a few inches, who was quite tall for his age. She turned to look at Ray, offering a small smile._

"_Come on, you better catch up or you will get something worse than the beating you got just now," she ushered them to get up between her own pants of exhaustion and ran to catch up with the rest of their group._

_Ray stayed on the floor for a few more moments, catching his breath and strength to renew his run. During those moments he saw CPO Mendez, who was looking directly at him. He locked eyes with him. To his surprise he didn't see anger in his eyes, like he expected, instead, his eyes were questioning, demanding. He understood what it was and he knew what Mendez wanted. His eyes were asking him 'do you have what it takes?' and at that moment, Ray accepted the challenge._

_He climbed back to his feet, staggering a bit from the pain in his neck and offered Zack a hand, who gladly took it and they both ran to catch up with the rest of their group, the blond girl who spoke with them moments ago sending them a glance and a smile as they did so. _

* * *

Ray stared at the photo, his mind lost in thought, unconsciously fingering the trio of dogtags that were hanging from his neck. He kept staring at it for several more minutes before he finally released a heavy sigh as he stood up to place the photo back into the compartment and grabbed a towel to take a quick shower.

* * *

**Okay, We're finished here! I love writing this chapter, mostly due to the fact that i was on a roll and managed to write this in a single day. I was vastly inspired to write today ^^ Oddly enough, it was that wierd spicy soup my grandmother makes that inspired me to write this day. Im getting off topic here so...I will see how soon i will be able to post the next chapter, though i can promise you that in around a month's time i will have massive amounts of free time to spend writing. I'm very glad that you like my story, as it is the most popular one i work on and your support makes me feel awesome :). I welcome constructive criticism, suggestions, idea or just plain comments. Just pm me your thoughts or leave them in a review, i would like to know what you think. So, until next time, Delvaro out.**


	8. The Bar

**Okay, I'm back, and like promised, MUCH sooner than usual! Hah, makes me feel better. Anyway, this chapter is not as long as i would've liked (this happens a lot lately .) but still, it looks much, much better than the earlier version.**** Also, i want to thank everyone who reviewed and support my story, makes me feel loved and special :3 so...uh, thanks a lot! :D**** Now, i dont have anything else to say for now, so without anymore distractions, here is the new rewritten chapter! :D**

* * *

1120 Hours, September 25, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / Alpha Base

_A smiling Blond, blood sipping down her her chin. A black haired man, his left arm burned off, offering his remaining hand with a grin. A pair of massive explosions, shaking the earth beneath him. The burning horizon. A lunging Elite, energy sword drawn and ready. Burning and agonizing pain._

* * *

Ray opened his eyes in a gasp and sat up in lightning speed. He looked around for several moments before his breathing calmed. He was in his room, inside this Alpha Base... not somewhere else, not on some burning planet. He rubbed his left shoulder, more precisely an angry pink scar on his shoulder, a gash that went from the colar bone to the shoulder blade. He looked at the holo-tank, which currently displayed the time.

He sat more comfortably, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He didnt sleep for four days before arriving here but it still bothered him that he slept this long. CPO Mendez would've beaten the shit out him if he slept like that during training...

Deciding that he had enough sleep to last him a month at least, he stood up and searched for his discarded clothing. He inspected them, frowning all the while, before turning to the holo-pad. "Leyla?" he asked, hoping that she was still in the system.

"Yes Ray?" she asked as she popped up into view, causing Ray to frown at the use of his real name.

"Uh, do you know where i can get clothes my size?" he asked her, gesturing at the too small clothes.

"Just a second," she said and dissappeared. Several seconds later, she popped back into view. "Someone will be here shortly to deliver you your new clothes," she stated.

"Good. How is Artemis?" he asked her after a moment of silence.

"Artemis is fine. She has woken up last night and is currently recovering at the medical wing. You may visit her whenever you want. Also, Captain Pavlov asked me to tell you that he will be waiting for you in the mess hall, which is one the second floor, if you didnt know," Artemis replied, her avatar looking at her nails. Just then there was a small 'bling' sound coming from the door. "Looks like you have guests," Leyla said before she blinked away. Ray simply shrugged and unlocked the door.

The door slid away to reveal a young woman, pretty good looking in Ray's opinion. She had black, wavy hair and hazel eyes, an hour-glass figure and she offered him a sweet smile. That is until she saw the occupant of the room and paled almost to the same level as Ray's skin. The Spartan learned a long time ago that he was almost as imposing and intimidating without his armor as he was with it.

He stood roughly at six and half feet, had messy dark-brown hair and a stubble from not shaving most of the time, mostly due to not having time for it. While he was in fact in his late forties, soon to be forty-seven years old, his outer appearance, and most likely inner condition, was of a man in his twenties. Numbers were just that, numbers. The features that most probably caused the young woman to pale was most likely the scars. He was shirtless at the moment, revealing honed muscles from years of action and training. All over those muscles – with the exception of his right side, which had a surprisingly small number of scars – were countless scars, large and small from plasma or other means and it will probably take her several minutes to count all of them since she hadnt see his back yet. He had a pair of tattoos on his shoulders, one on each. On the left shoulder was a tattoo of an eagle holding three arrows and a lightning bolt: the Spratan insignia. The right shoulder had a tattoo of a grinning green skull, outlined by black. She looked at his face to see more scars, although much, much less than the number he had on his torso. The largest scar he had was a small, thin line going from his eyebrow to the jawbone beneath it. If she could guess, she would guess someone attempted to slash his eye out. The other scars were small and rather insignificant, mainly being small scratches.

"Yes?" the Spartan asked her, raising and eyebrow at her mortified silence.

"H-here mister Spartan, I brought you c-clothes," she stammered with a thin voice. Ray summarised that she couldnt be older than twenty. She offered a small bundle of folded clothes to the larger man.

"Thank you," he said, accepting the bundle from the woman, who still looked at him with awe in her eyes. "You may go now," he added.

"Y-yes sir!" she replied, a little too fast, probably when she realized that she was staring. She quickly disappeared from his sight and with an annoyed sigh he closed the door to get dressed.

Minutes later he stepped out his room, wearing a regular uniform with. He locked the door behind it after instructing Leyla to inform him if anyone would be trying to enter his room. He walked through the hallways, expertly moving through the limited amount of people he encountered, who already began to avoid him once he appeared in their sight.

He reached the elevator with relative ease, and pushed the call button and patiently waited for it to arrive. After several minutes, where people who passed by spent by staring at him with their mouths gaping, the elevator doors finally opened. He stepped in, taking note that all the people who were inside stepped out in relative hurry. He simply shrugged it off and pushed the needed floor button. The doors closed and he was on his way.

When he stepped out into the second floor he was immideately greeted by loud flip music, which he didnt mind in all honesty. He frowned as he remembered all the music he heard since Zack developed an immense love for this type of music, which resulted in him often hearing it as well. He didnt know where to go but he could take an easy guess and he simply followed the music to the source.

He eventually arrived to a large room, heavily occupied with men and women, some of which were eating while some drinking on the large amount of tables that were scattered over the room. A smell of tobacco and alcohol reached his nostrils but he endured it. He scanned the large room, hoping to locate the Captain. The kitchen, which has a large sign with "Bar" written on it – which he couldn't help but frown at – had several men handing food to the "patrons". Most of the people in the room were eating and conversing with each other and a bunch of rowdy soldiers, if their appearance hinted at anything, were loudly singing to the music while waving half empty bottles of some brown liquid. After several moments where he simply stood at the entrance and looked for the Caption, ignoring the stares he got from the people closest to him, he finally spotted the disheveled looking man sitting in one of the corner with another, unfamiliar, man.

The Captain looked like – as his old teammate Zack would've described him – shit. He had a dark stubble and his once finely groomed hair was an uncontrolled mess. He had dark bags under his eyes and at this moment he looked much older than he really was. The Spartan also took note of the three empty bottles that were on the table. The other man that occupied the table was a man who looked to be in his forties. He was bald, had pale skin and a childish smile on his face, accompanied by some youthful twinkle in his eyes.

"Sir," Ray said when he approached the Captain.

"Take a seat son, we're off duty," was the greeting he got from Pavlov. The Spartan did as instructed and took a seat beside the bald man, who's smile was even larger than before.

"Ah, you're that Spartan everyone's talking about!" the man greeted him as he offered a hand. "I'm Alan but everyone's calling me Snow." Ray raised his eyebrow at the name. "You saw me last night at the entrance. They call me Snow because I'm one of the guys who freezes their asses off outside," he clarified.

Ray accepted and shook the hand. No point in being rude, he guessed. "Lieutenant, Junior Grade Spartan-128," he replied, not feeling like giving his real name to some civilian.

Snow raised a curios eyebrow at first but then shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, on behalf of everyone on this planet I will like to thank you," he continued, offering the Spartan one of the largest grins he ever saw.

"Thank me for what?" Ray asked, confused. He didn't do anything yet worth thanking for.

"You kicked some alien ass yesterday! There's bound to be some disorder in their ranks now, especially when they hear we have two Spartans with us," Snow replied cheerily.

"Okay, thanks, I guess," the Spartan replied. "So, Captain, why did you want to see me?" he asked.

"Huh?" came the intelligent reply as he looked blankly at the Spartan. Then, something probably clicked in his head, realization came into his eyes. "Ah, yes. We will be discussing the plan this evening so come to Jennifer's office at 1800 hours. Understood?" he explained.

"Understood. Anything else?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, have something to eat dammit, you're pale as it is!" Pavlov exclaimed, waving his hand, beckoning to someone. A minute later a young woman arrived with a steaming plate of something that Ray couldn't see yet.

She placed it in front of him and Ray could finally inspect the food. It seemed to be a steaming leg of some creature... were those claws? He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that.

"Lizard legs, damn delicious if you ask me!" Snow explained as the waitress went back to where she came from. "Those damn creatures are swarming the tunnels all around but that doesn't bother us so much. Its like a moving unending supply of food."

Ray looked at it suspiciously for several seconds before he shrugged and started wolfing down the food, which proved to be delicious as Snow said.

"You know, I miss the _Maria. _She was my ship for nearly twenty years dammit and I went through half the war with her! I participated in thirteen space battles against the covies, thirteen battles! And I came out of them alive! And how do I love my ship in the end? To some half-assed crash landing. That's how," Pavlov said bitterly, pouring more brown liquor into his glass.

"At least you're alive," Snow supplied, obviously attempting to cheer the now ship-less Captain.

"My ship was as much of a part of me as my bloody arm. I have now an empty black hole within my soul..." the Captain replied glumly.

"Maybe now you will get a new ship with the upgrades you wanted so bad," Ray remarked. The Spartan knew how some captains became attached to their ships but this was too much for him to see. Pavlov was a man who kept himself calm in the face of danger and trouble and to see this... shadow of the man he is was quite depressing. Ray was trained to not get attached and rely on his equipment too much. If his equipment was broken or lost, he will just get a new one, not sulk around.

"Perhaps," Pavlov said with a ghost of a smile, "but it wont be my _Maria_. The upgrades are pretty worth it though..."

The new upgrades were mostly the new shielding system developed from shared covenant technology given by the Elites to humanity and the improvements to the slipspace drive which would make UNSC ships even more accurate as any covenant ship in existence. It sounded promising but these "upgrades" cost a fortune and so far the UNSC had only four ships built with these upgrades in mind and only three old ships upgraded. As far as the Spartan heard, they planned for all the remaining ships be outfitted with the new tech by 2560.

"Here, have a drink!" Pavlov said, pouring a glass for Ray, pushing it his way. The Spartan paused in his meal and pushed the glass away to Snow.

"I don't drink sit, you know that," he said, not that alcohol would affect him much. During one... tough period of his life he attempted to drink a bit but his attempt failed as he never got that fabled 'drunk' feeling. He was simply drinking the bitter liquid with the same effect he got from drinking water. After that, he didn't see any point to it and didn't try again. He suspected that he would need to drink more than it was humanly possible to get drowsy.

"Bah, I don't get how you Spartans can live with yourselves!" he spat. He lifted his glass to the air, prompting Snow to do the same. "A toast, to the _Maria_, a fine ship, now lost," he said and downed the glass in one shot, quickly followed by Snow.

Ray continued to eat in silence, left in his own thoughts until a loud, slightly slurred voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Oi! You're that Spartan?" came the shout from behind him.

Ray tore his attention from the nearly finished lizard leg and turned around to face five men, all looking at him expectantly. Ray studied them closely, spotting one who had the ODST insignia tattooed on his neck. The Spartan resisted the urge to groan. While he had a large amount of respect for the marines and the ODST, they didn't have the same respect for him. Zack once said, and Ray completely agreed that "The ODST have the biggest balls around. We have the half ton armor covering us and they don't but they still get the job done and they do it no worse than us... only with more casualties.". The marines and ODST didn't have heightened reflexes, superior strength and speed but they still fought valiantly for every inch of ground and fought fiercer than even some Spartans. Of course, that respect, unfortunately, wasn't mutual. The ODST still treated him like shit while the marines kept their distance from him, probably believing some idiotic rumor that he was a robot or something...

"And if I am?" Ray finally replied. The helljumpers looked at each other, as if conversing without words.

Ray heard Pavlov cackle to himself and silently speaking to Snow. "This is going to be fun. ODST and Spartans mix like a gasoline soaked match and fire."

The Captain's words turned to be true when one of the helljumpers, holding an empty bottle advances at him, rising the bottle and bringing it down on Ray's head. The only problem with that was that the bottle didn't reach its designated target. The swinging arm was caught by a vice grip at the wrist and before the man could react, he was pulled with amazing speed, straight into the incoming punch from the Spartan.

The punch hit the man right in the stomach and Ray released him a moment later, allowing him to drop to the floor where he curled into a half-ball and clutched his wounded stomach while coughing uncontrollably.

Ray knew that he had to be careful as he could easily kill them with his enhanced strength, just like John did all those years ago, which probably stemmed the shit he was facing now. The remaining four man stared dumbly at their fallen comrade for several seconds and the whole mess hall fell into deathly silence, only the loud flip music keeping the room from being entirely quiet.

As if someone pressed a switch, all four men charged at the same time. It all happened very quickly and some people, even though they looked at the scene, somehow missed what transpired. Some people will continue retelling this scene for years to come because none of them have ever witnessed such a thing. It all happened in the blink of an eye. The Spartan caught the clumsy punch that was thrown at him and simply _swung_ the man around into another one of his comrade, as if he was a projectile. The remaining two attacked at the same time. Ray sidestepped the first one and twisted himself around the second one, ending up behind him, already attacking. He kneed the man in the lower back, causing him to buckle backwards, where his face met the Spartan's punch and eventually his head met the floor with a loud smack. The last remaining man turned around, yelling in rage sending another punch flying. Ray caught the punch and twisted his arm into a painful angle, causing the Helljumper to scream in pain. The Spartan proceeded to send a punch into the man's ribs which blew all the air from his lungs. Soon after that, Ray grabbed the back of his head and slammed him face first into the table.

The silence that followed was deafening. The Spartan didn't even look winded. Ray looked at his former opponents, now all either groaning on the ground or unconscious. And this was the reason why Ray hated drunk ODST. They tended to think too much of himself and sometimes thought to have some "fun" with him. These were obviously not the Helljumpers from the _Maria_, since those knew not to attack him, drunk or not.

Ray turned to the captain, forgetting the food. "Sir," he said and left the room, ignoring the fact that Pavlov was currently laughing his ass off and the people starting to talk about what they witnessed.

Ray made it to his room in record time and took a seat on his bed, where he sat several minutes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Helljumpers tended to annoy him. His gaze finally settled on his armor and an idea came to his mind.

"Leyla?" he asked, turning to the holo-tank just as Leyla's avatar blinked on, replacing the clock. "Is there anywhere where I can repair any damage my armor suffered?"

"Yes, there is a place. Its on the fifth floor, right beside the armory," the AI replied, replacing herself with a map of the facility. Ray quickly studied the map and memorized everything he saw and all important details he though he might need.

"Thank you," he said while standing up to don his armor. Leyla gave him a mock salute and winked out of sight.

A while later he stepped out of his room, now fully clad in his armor. This time, his trek to the elevator was silent as most people avoided him when they saw him. It took several more minutes of waiting in the elevator before the doors finally opened and he stepped out onto the fifth floor. Finding the armory was easy, as he had the map of the whole base now.

As he saw it, they separated the damaged and operational equipment into two rooms, the armory being the room where the operational equipment was. Ray entered the second room, which was littered with tables with various broken equipments and tools littered around. He saw a grizzled old man working on a MA5C and a pair of Huragok floating around, tending to broken weapons and such.

"And who might you be?" the old man asked, turning to face him. "My, such a big lad, I haven't seen one your size since 2469!" the man remarked as he fully faced the Spartan.

"Spartan-128," was the short reply.

"Call me Douglas," replied the old man. "and these are," he pointed at the two engineers, "Todd and Luther," Douglas explained.

"Todd and Luther?" Ray couldn't help but ask.

"Aye. One of the split-lips told what their names are but they are so long and confusing so I gave them new names," the man said with a smile. "Besides, don't they look like a Todd and Luther to you?"

Ray looked at the floating engineers, who didn't pay any heed to their conversation and instead repaired several plasma rifles.

"No, not really," he replied honestly.

"No worries. They're helpful lads. In my age I'm getting slower and these take off a lot of the workload for me. Years ago I could fix an assault rifle in minutes but now I'm a bit slower. Besides, I cant figure out the alien tech anyway. I have no doubt that the base would've collapsed on out heads by now if these little lads weren't floating around fixing everything!" Douglas stated.

Ray frowned behind his visor. This was a clear violation of UNSC protocols, allowing aliens access to UNSC technology and facilities but... you have to take drastic measures during a hard time. The Human - Sangheili alliance is just one of those drastic measures.

"I need to make some repairs, where can I get the tools?" Ray asked.

"Over there in that cabinet. Or you can just take Luther or Todd and they will fix you up in no time!" Douglas replied.

"I'll do it myself," The Spartan assured him.

"Understandable. I never allowed anyone to temper with my stuff before I retired. Good to know that you younger kids know how to take care of your equipment." the old man said. "I'll better get back to work, these guns wont repair themselves you know."

"I wont bother you," Ray replied and went to get the tools he will need.

Ray decided that he liked Douglas, who was obviously much older than him. He didn't gawk at him and didn't even ask anything about him being a Spartan. He took it in stride. Ray liked people like Douglas.

Ray opened the cabinet and collected the tools he thought he will need, at the same time starting a system diagnostic to see if his suit suffered some damage that wasn't visible to the naked eye.

He had some hours to kill, what better way to pass them than doing something productive?

* * *

**Okay! This chapter is done! Surprisingly, i enjoyed rewriting this chapter a lot, so much in fact that i rewritten it in record time! Now, as a friend of mine asked me (just in case you will be wondering), why the UNSC upgraded only 3 ships and built 4 new ones with the new tech in five years? Its quite simple. Note that it took the UNSC 20 years(!) to develop the dhielding technology for the MJolnir MK. V armor. Twenty years spent reverse-engineering a jackal's shield. Yeah...thats quite some time. Since they had experience with that, i assume that the UNSC engineers could reverse engineer covenant ship tech in a year or three and start upgrading ships. Now thats its explained (even if you probably werent interested in knowing that) this chapter is DONE! Thank you for reading this and i accept all kinds of feedback such as suggestions, idea and very welcomed constructive criticism. Meh, even just point out flaws in my story, it'll help me in the long run. Thanks again! Delvaro out!**


	9. Green Team

**Woohoo, im on a roll! I dont believe i ever updated this story this often! I believe its now what? Three times in the last two weeks? Thats amazing. ****Although i must admit that boredom played an important part in my sudden updating spree. Now, i dont really have much to say at this point, other than that this chapter is longer than the last three, but not long enough to my liking. I've finished writing this yesterday but i only managed to upload it today since i fell asleep last night while writing this... Anyway, if ill be lucky here, ill finish rewriting everything by the end of the month, probably even sooner. After that, there is only one chapter left (which doesnt need much rewriting honestly). Anyway, now that im done with this, enjoy the new chapter!  
**

* * *

0445 Hours, March 24, 2538 (Military Calendar) / Planet Espio / Jungle

Espio was a large earth-type planet. It was a planet slightly larger than Earth with three small moons in orbit and was mostly covered by jungles. It remained mostly unpopulated, having only a single agricultural colony. So far, this planet remained unscathed but none knew for how long, mostly due to no one being able to figure out the Covenant's attack pattern so far.

Through one of the large jungles, a SPARTAN-II team moved through the foliage, their footsteps surprisingly not making a single sound, despite the fact that they weighted half-a-ton in their suits or armor. They moved at a quick pace, taking care to avoid clusters of bushes which could cause unneeded noise. The sun has only begun rise and the jungles were still shadowed and dark, offering their olive-green armor much cover within the foliage.

The lead Spartan, Zack-103 raised his fist and the remaining two, Amy-013 and Ray-128 froze in their tracks and raised their weapons. They patiently waited for several seconds before they looked at Zack expectantly. He gave them a slight shake from side to side, indicating there was trouble ahead.

"What is it?" Ray asked when they opened a private COM frequency.

"A patrol, 4 targets, 200 feet," Zack replied in a gruff voice.

"We're close," Amy replied, adding a nod to her statement.

"Finally. We're sticking to the plan?" Ray asked them, switching between his MA37 to his customized SRS99.

"Yeah, we follow the plan, don't start without us," Zack said as he gestured to Amy to follow him. Ray waited for several seconds after they disappeared into the bushes before he went on his own path.

Nearly two weeks ago an ONI agent, said to hold crucial intel, was captured by insurrectionists and was believed to be held in a base on this planet. They arrived to this planet several hours ago, dropped a safe distance from the base and after moving several miles on foot, it seemed that they finally arrived.

Ray moved through the jungle quietly, constantly scanning the area for any hostiles until he finally found what he was looking for: an ascending path. He remained withing the foliage, not risking going out to the open. A pair of loud voices alerted him and he froze in his tracks, hidden in the bushes as two men descended the path, talking among themselves. The Spartan waited until they were out of sight and he didn't hear them before he continued. After several minutes of climbing the path he finally reached his target.

It was a cliff side, overlooking what appeared to be a small base. On the cliff, which was part of a mountain, was a small barricaded position, complete with a machine gun and a sniping position. Ray inspected the scene before him, fighting the urge to shake his head when he saw that the machine-gunner was taking a nap at the time while the sniper was overlooking the base, smoking a cigarette.

The Spartan silently approached the smoking sniper from behind, silent like death itself, as he unsheathed his combat knife. The man never suspected anything until a firm hand clasped around his mouth and sharp pain speared his throat. Moments later he was dead. Ray laid the man on the ground, careful to not make a sound, and approached the sleeping man. Just like before he clamped his hand over his mouth and with a quick slash the man was dead. He wiped his knife of the blood before sheathing it away and readied his sniper rifle, which was customized, the main feature being the silencer and the lack of a bipod. He gave another look around himself, just in case he missed a sentry, which was unlikely but one couldn't be too careful.

He took the now-dead sniper's position and observed the base. It was rather simple looking. A small wall surrounded the base, a guard tower and a pair of buildings. Several trucks were parked outside and the gates were heavily guarded. Armed men and women moved across the base, doing whatever duties were assigned to them. He spotted several man disappearing beneath him, which clarified that the main base was in the mountain. Ray had to wonder for a second why everyone insisted on building those inside a mountain.

"I'm in position," he said into their frequency.

_"Good, we're moving into position, how's the view?"_ Zack asked.

Ray gave the area a look around. The place was rather beautiful, especially from this spot. Tree tops flooded the view until the horizon, where the first signs of the sun began showing up. Having seen several worlds being glassed, and everything on them burned made him appreciate the beauty of some planets. Who knows, maybe this planet will be glassed in a few years?

"The view is good, the sunrise is especially beautiful from here," Ray remarked.

_"Dumbass, I didn't mean that view. What do you see in the base?"_ Zack asked as Amy chuckled in the background.

"Alright, let's see..." he muttered as he looked through the scope of his rifle. "There are around twelve sentries and a sniper on the tower, take note that there might be more hostiles in the buildings. Not everyone is armed, might be civilians. Three trucks, two buildings, and an entrance beneath me into the main base. Most of the wall is guarded but this section seems to have the least guards," he said as he marked said location and passed it to his teammate's HUD so he could see it.

_"Roger that, moving into position,"_ From his high vantage point Ray followed his teammates with the scope, constantly checking to see what was ahead of them as they moved through the trees.

_"Green two,"_ Zack said, referring to Ray. "Once we are inside, I doubt we will manage to extract the package without alerting anyone, he's bound to be guarded. Once I give you the mark, keep them from entering the main base, I don't want to fight every single hostile from outside on our way out."

"Roger that green one," Ray confirmed. "This is going to be one of those missions..." he muttered.

_"One of those missions?"_ Amy asked as she followed Zack to their breaching point.

"Yeah. You're going to have some fun while I'm going to sit my ass on a rock for an hour while drawing fire from you."

_"Hey, don't blame us. It's not my fault that you're a better shot than me and you know Zack. He might hurt himself if you give him a sniper rifle,"_ Amy replied, voice tinted with amusement.

_"I can hear you, you know?"_ Zack remarked. He and Amy stopped right beside the marked wall. _"Alright, I'm in position. Don't alert them until we're inside."_

"Got that, clearing a way for you..." he trailed off, inspecting the base. The wall where they to go through was right behind the three trucks, so they were somewhat covered from the rest of the base. Near those trucks was a large pile of crates, the contents of which he couldn't know, but they could offer additional cover to get to the inner gate. He relayed all that information to his teammates and took aim with the scope.

The sniper in the tower will have to go first but he had to take care with his timing. If someone was to see the sniper getting shot an alert will be raised. He aimed at the head and waited for several seconds, taking glances at the hostiles around the tower. When he was sure no one was watching, he pulled the trigger. With a silent cough the bullet sailed through the air, zipping its way through the air until it reached its target. The man's head – what was left of it – snapped back before he fell to the ground in a growing pool of his own blood. "Tango down," Ray announced as he waited to see if anyone reacted to the sniper's sudden death. When no reaction came after several moments he aimed his rifle at the trucks. Two hostiles stood near the truck closest to the wall, conversing. He took a calming breath, seeing that they were out of sight and aimed at the first one. He pulled the trigger and with lightning speed aimed at the second one and pulled the trigger again.

The two rounds sailed through the air at supersonic speed. The first one hit the first target, coming out of the back of his head in an explosive manner, spraying red mist in a gruesome manner. The second man had time to widen his eyes in surprise before a high velocity round tore through his throat, nearly tearing his head from his shoulder. The two soldiers fell to the ground with a dull thud, blood beginning to pool around what remained of their heads. He waited several seconds once again, scanning the area around the bodies before he began scanning the area for new targets. "Area clear, you can get in now," he announced. "Just wait for my mark."

Zack gave a nod to Amy as they approached the wall. The wall was around fourteen feet tall. While it might be enough to stop any normal intruders, it wasn't enough to stop Spartans. They stopped beneath the wall and waited for Ray to give them the signal. Just then a green acknowledgment light winked once from Ray. Zack leapt as high as he could, which was pretty high as it was, and grabbed the edge of the wall and pulled himself upwards and in a second he was on the other side, crouching beside the two dead men. Seconds later Amy dropped down beside him, M7 SMG raised and ready. Zack took out his M90 shotgun and slowly peeked out from behind the truck to see the inner gates.

To his frustration he counted five armed men at the entrance. The entrance itself was wide, wide enough for two of the trucks to easily drive in. Inside he spotted more of the crates that were outside. His main problem though were the soldiers at the entrance.

"Shit, there are five hostiles in there, we cant pass without alerting the whole base," Zack said.

_"Damn, they were right beneath me. Wait a minute... I will try to give you a distraction,"_ Ray responded. Ray looked through the scope, searching for something that might take everyone's attention from the gates. Several seconds were spent in silence until he finally spotted something that might prove itself as a good distraction. _"Green one, I've spotted a small generator about fifty feet behind you. I will distract them but I'm not sure how much time it will buy you."_

Zack contemplated his options before responding. "Proceed."

Ray took aim at the generator, a small one and quite outdated, which was used to power the two small buildings. He pulled the trigger and his rifle coughed a single round, which zipped through the air and into the generator, where it impacted with a small shower of sparks. Immediately the lights went out, which was quickly accompanied by angry shouts of protest and surprise. Meanwhile Ray simply reloaded his rifle.

Zack watched patiently as the five guards tensed when they spotted the sparks from the generators. Four of the five quickly left their posts to check the damaged generator, which already had a small crowd gathering around it. The two Spartans waited and hoped to see the last guard following the others but alas, it didn't happen and so, Zack decided to improvise. He motioned Amy to follow him and he sprinted out of his cover. While everyone's attention was focused on the generator, including the remaining guard's, no one noticed the two large blurs that came out from behind the truck. The guard did notice them but by that time it was too late. He attempted to shout a warning, or anything else to warn his comrades, but before the shout could even leave his throat, half-a-ton of armored man tackled him. With the superhuman speed the Spartan was moving at, and the force he applied into the tackle, it most likely had the same effect of a moving truck. The man flew back with a muffled groan – or a moan, it wasn't really discernible – and landed in a heap, his eyes unfocused and dazed but his journey didn't end there. Amy was quick to grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him after Zack, where they sent the dazed men into the sweet and painless plane of unconsciousness with a single punch.

Ray watched as they disappeared into the mountain base and then he watched the crowd inspect the damaged generator. He kept watching as one man shouted something at the crowd and started inspecting the generator. The man took several glances before he took out a COM device.

_"Farmer, Simmons, did you see what happened to the generator?"_ a gruff voice sounded beside Ray. He turned his head to find the source and saw an identical device attacked to the dead sniper's belt. _"Farmer? Simmons? Are you there?"_

"This is green two, I have a situation here..." Ray muttered.

_"What's the situation?"_ Zack asked him.

"We're about to be detected," Ray said flatly. "They are trying to contact the dead sniper, who is right here by the way, but when he wont answer they will be alerted that something's wrong," he explained, ignoring the still active COM device on the dead man.

A few seconds passed before he received a reply. _"Well, don't keep them waiting. That will be plain rudeness."_

Ray couldn't help but smile at those words. Without the need to reply he simply took aim and put his marksman training to use. While he wasn't the best sniper, that spot was solely reserved to Linda-058, who could beat his in any contest of marksmanship, but he wasn't that far behind her. While Linda had both the speed and accuracy, he had the speed but it messed his accuracy a bit. Due to his slightly reduced accuracy, he concentrated more on the torso if he had to make quick shots. Linda though, could score head shots and still shoot faster than him...

The man, who by now was looking at the place where his unresponsive sniper was, didn't see the supersonic bullet that went through his head. He fell back, quickly followed by the airborne pieces of his head. The small crowd stared at the dead body, and the small cloud of red mist that began settling on the ground, for several moments in dead silence before another man had half of his head turned into red mist and the man behind him dropping down with a fist-sized hole in his chest. Soon after that panic began.

* * *

When they first entered the hallways were mostly deserted, with the exception of a couple of groggy soldiers that the two Spartans easily avoided. Luckily for them, the intel they received was good this time and they even had a map of the place, although not entirely accurate as it was proved at one point when the map lead them straight into a wall. Soon after that they decided to rely on intuition, experience and luck. They knew the general location where their target was held but with the not-so-accurate map they still took a couple of wrong turns.

And then Ray announced that they will be detected soon and true to the point, an alarm started blazing. Zack glanced at his TACPAD, seeing that they were close to their target, only a hallway away from them. He gestured to Amy to prepare her weapon and raised his shotgun as they hastened their pace. The first resistance they encountered was rather pathetic. A half dressed men burst out of a side room, brandishing a handgun. The man at first looked in confusion at the two towering olive-green soldiers before his eyes widened in surprise. He attempted to raise his handgun to release a shot but before he managed to do so his face met the butt of the shotgun. There was a loud crack as the man's neck was bent backwards in an unnatural angle and soon after that, he collapsed in a heap.

The two Spartans didn't pay any attention to the body and simply stepped over it, moving on to their target. Several minutes later, and two encounters where they quickly dispatched the enemy, they finally reached the target, a metal door. Zack stopped in front of it, gave a nod to his companion and charged at the door. Just like the time when he tackled the guard, the door couldn't hold him as well. It was a proven fact that there weren't many doors in the galaxy that were Spartan-proof.

The door was blasted off it's hinges, causing the single guard inside to cry in surprise but before he could raise his assault rifle he received a trio of bullets into his chest, courtesy of Amy. Inside the room was a desk with two chairs in front of it, one of which was occupied. The man wore a regular navy uniform and he was young, perhaps in his early twenties but you could never determine the correct age with the cryogenic sleep. His hands were bound and he twisted his neck to face them with wide eyes. Zack saw several bruises on the man's face and one gash beneath his eyes.

Zack glanced at his TACPAD, bringing up the target's information, which included a picture. Once he confirmed that this was the man they were looking for he gave a nod to Amy who proceeded to release him from his bindings.

"Lieutenant Curtis Marwick, I assume you're here for me?" the man asked as he stretched his arms and rubbed his sore wrists. Zack just offered him a nod. Amy proceeded to prepare a small surprise for the captors. "Thank god, I was starting to worry here... do you have a weapon for me?" he asked, walking to stand in front of the Spartan, who towered above him. "Don't worry, I know how to use it," he reassured. Zack thought over it for a couple of seconds before handing the man his M6G handgun. The Spartan glanced at his teammate, seeing her finish setting everything up.

"Follow us and stay behind us," Zack ordered and motioned to Amy to check the hallway.

Amy stepped outside, her submachine gun raised and ready to fire but when she saw no one she gave them the all-clear sign and they followed her. Zack once again took the lead and moved through the hallways back to where they came from. A minute or two passed without any occurrences until they reach a turn and Zack caught the loud sounds of heavy boots approaching their way. He signaled his teammate to freeze with a raised fist and Marwick did the same as Amy, readying his weapon. Zack waited as the footsteps got louder and louder and by the sound of it there were at least five pairs of boots approaching them. Just as the first man came around the turn, he was greeted by a vicious elbow from Zack and the surprised man who was right behind him received a shotgun blast from point blank range. By the time the remaining three soldiers managed to raise their weapons, Amy came in, SMG blazing. The soldiers were quickly met by a hail of bullets and within seconds they were lying on the ground in a pool of their own blood.

The Spartans paid no attention to the bodies but Marwick paused for several seconds to give an upraising glance at the Spartan's handiwork. They continued on their way and they almost made it to the exit when they encountered a small snag. Right after the entered the base and after a short hallway, they passed through a large room with a large amount of stacked crates and other hallways which lead to other sections of the base. The second Zack stepped into this room on their way back a green plasma bolt flew right by his face.

Without needing to order anyone the two Spartans and ONI agent jumped behind several crates that could serve as cover. Soon after that, plasma fire started raining over them, hitting Zack's mind was spinning on overdrive, trying to figure out what he saw just now. "What the fuck was that?" He asked aloud?

"Covenant?" Amy asked with a hint of worry. They both knew that if the covenant was here they were essentially screwed. The only backup they had here was the Prowler that stayed in orbit. Zack was worried about what he would see but the second he spotted the hostiles worry was replaced with confusion.

"What... the fuck?" he couldn't help but mutter.

Behind various crates and other forms of cover stood human soldiers, which wasn't odd on its own but the strangest detail was the assortment of covenant equipment that they held. He did a quick count in his head as he switched his shotgun for his remaining pistol. He spotted four hostiles with plasma rifles and five hostiles with plasma pistols and surprisingly, point defense gauntlets. The trio opened fire in return, and within seconds two of the hostiles fell down, clutching gunshot wounds. One of the gauntlet wielding soldiers made a fatal flaw by remaining outside of cover, preferring to rely on his shield but he missed one crucial detail: the shield was large enough to cover a Jackal but a human on the other hand... a bullet pierced his leg, which caused him to topple down with a shout of pain, where a second bullet, surprisingly from Marwick, silenced him.

"I believe that they hijacked a ship that transported captured covenant tech," Marwick yelled over the gunfire. "They started doing that lately!" Zack pondered it for a second, ducking back under the crate as a plasma bolt flew dangerously close to his face. He could understand their thinking. Covenant tech was incredibly superior to the standard UNSC weaponry. They probably assumed that if they could get advanced weapons they might have an edge over the UNSC and, in the worst case scenario, the covenant.

Within a minute five of the hostiles were down and dead but before the Spartans could finish off the rest of them, another five, this time brandishing assault rifles, poured out of a side hallways, coming to assist the defenders.

"Green two, we're going to need a quick way to get out of here," Zack said into the COM.

_"Roger that, I'll be on it in a minute."_

* * *

Ray took aim and released another shot, the supersonic bullet going through another target's head. For the past several minutes he eliminated most of the resistance outside, the rest having learned to stay in cover. Having his new orders, he placed his rifle back onto the magnetic plates on his back and took the MA37. Knowing that Zack wanted it done now, and not several minutes later he decided to take the quick route to the base. He walked to the edge and stepped down, allowing himself to slide down the cliff-side, tearing the rock on his way down. He was thankful that the cliff-side wasn't completely vertical and was at an angle that allowed him this descent and while it was high, around a hundred feet high, the armor could supposedly allow him atmospheric entry, though he wasn't keen on trying that yet.

His descent was mostly uneventful, if you don't count the awfully annoying grinding noise of titanium on rock. He landed in a crouch, assault rifle at the ready. He quickly sprinted to the closest building, knowing that a decent number of hostiles took cover there when he was sniping at them. He approached the door and let loose a mighty kick, which sent the door off its hinges and caused several of the men inside to scream in surprise. Taking aim he peered into the room and opened fire. While the MA37 wasn't entirely effective against energy shielding but it was more than enough against unshielded humans. The bullets shredded the remaining defenders within seconds before they could even raise a defense. Ray inspected the scene for a second, checking if he didn't leave anyone behind.

After that, he left the building and sprinted to one of the trucks and entered it. Within seconds, he started the engine and drove it closer to the inner gates. "Green one, I've got our ride," he said into the COM.

_"Green one, en-route."_ Zack replied just as a bullet pinged against the windshield with a loud curse Ray jumped out of the truck, weapon raised and already aiming.

* * *

"Marwick, stay behind me, we're getting out of here," Amy barked, reloading her SMG. The LT giving her a nod as he caught another clip for his weapon, thrown by Zack.

"Got it," Marwick replied, moving closer to the woman.

Zack replaced his pistol in favor of his shotgun and inspected the scene. There werent many hostiles left, only four of them now, the floor littered with the bodies of the fallen. "Charge on my mark," Zack ordered, receiving a nod from his two companions. Zack waited for the most fitting moment, most preferably while they were reloading, and when he felt like it was time he released a loud bark. "Mark!"

Like a titanium-clad hurricane, the two Spartans rushed out of their cover, Zack reaching his enemies within seconds, shotgun already firing. Amy didn't need to get that close as her rate of fire easily compensated for that. Marwick released a couple of shots, scoring a hit on the shoulder of one man who jumped out of his cover in an attempt to escape the green monster and with another shot, the man was finished.

Soon after that they were on their way out and seconds later they were at the gates, where they saw Ray shooting down a small group that took cover behind a building. Without stopping Zack jumped into the driver's seat while Amy and Marwick jumped into the back, where the LT sat down to catch his breath. The truck started moving and Ray, seeing no point to continue shooting at them quickly caught up with the moving vehicle and hopped in, taking his place beside Amy. Zack drove the truck, constantly speeding it up until they reached the outer gate, which the truck simply plowed through.

"That was fun," Amy remarked, lifting up a small detonator. Ray watched it for a few seconds and couldn't help but grin. Looking at Amy's faceplate, he simply knew that she was grinning as well. She pressed the button and a loud, although muffled, roar of an explosion could be heard when the six charges of C-12 detonated inside the base, possibly causing a cave-in. Ray watched as a cloud of dust and debris flew out of the inner gate.

"Fun indeed," Ray remarked, smiling. He turned to see their 'package'.

"I don't believe I know who you guys are," Marwick

"Petty officer second class Spartan one-two-eight," Ray responded, followed by Amy who introduced herself. "The driver is Petty officer second class Spartan one-zero-three," Ray finished, introducing Zack,

"Spartans?" Marwick asked quietly, raising an eyebrow at their appearance. "I'm flattered that they would send you to get me out. Nevertheless, I'm thankful," he said, giving them both a nod. "I'm lieutenant Curtis Marwick," he introduced himself, recieving a nod in return.

Soon after that silence descended on the passengers, for the LT at least. Ray and Amy talked through a private frequency, Ray asking for details on how their end of the mission went and Amy in return asking how everything went above ground. They continued like this for several minutes of a bumpy ride until the sound of a second engine reached their ears.

"Shit, they're followed us," Marwick spat, frowning at the road behind them.

Ray didn't say anything, simply switching his MA37 for the sniper rifle. He asked Zack to slow down their pace a bit and he complied. The Spartan then causally took aim and when the sound of the engine turned into a roar, the truck quickly catching up to them, he pulled the trigger three times. The first bullet went through the driver's chest. The second bullet tore through the passenger's head, splattering blood and brain matter all over his side of the cabin. The third round impacted the engine and being a round fired from an Anti-Materiel rifle, the round tore through the engine, ripping through everything that stood in its way and exited from the other side. With a loud bang and a hiss the enemy truck started slowing down at a fast pace before they completely left it behind.

Ray holstered his rifle, noticing that Marwick was giving him an appraising look. He simply shrugged in return and took his seat near Amy. After that, they remained in silence, even the Spartans, Minutes later the truck started slowing down, having reached the evac pelican LZ. They jumped out of the truck as the roar of a pelican dropship could be heard. Ray looked up to see the welcoming form of the pelican approaching them, descending at a quick pace to their location. Within seconds the pelican was already groundside and the team of Spartans and the lieutenant climbed into it. Several seconds later they felt gravity trying to keep its hold on them as the pelican started climbing higher and higher as the troop bay doors sealed themselves shut.

"I cant believe Ray didn't screw up a mission for once," Zack suddenly piped in and it was soon followed by Amy's laughter.

"Fuck you, next time I'm unloading a round up your ass, you hear that?" Ray growled back in reply, even though he was smiling behind his visor.

Within minutes the dropship will arrive to the prowler and they will deliver their 'package'. After that, Green team will be redeployed to the front lines, doing what they were best at: Fighting the Covenant.

* * *

**Hell yeah, not this version was better, right? I certainly feel so. Now, my friend asked me (he always asks questions for some reason) and ill gladly answer it, and even allow you to know the answer as well. He asked me why im not using the armor permutations. My honest answer? Because its utter bullshit. First of all, know that the Mjolnir armor costs around...say, a ship (a frigate i belive). Yeah, its that expensive, hence why the Spartan-III project left out the Mjolnir armor. The armor is simply not meant for mass production. Now, imagine making different armor parts...just how many armor parts are there? Yeah, now imagine how much all that will cost? Note that im speaking in-universe here, not ingame (the armor permutation thing was added to add variaty to the player and the ability to create "your own" spartan) but in-universe it doesnt make any sense. Okay, ill admit that the whole UNSC asking private companies to help making the armor thing, its quite logical since the UNSC constantly spend vast resources on the war agains the covenant (and ill admit that im in love with the Halo: Reach's Mk V armor, more accurately B312's Default armor. i just love it) and its quite logical of them to do so. But the whole premutation part is just bullshit. More so because the Spartans were trained for any kind of Op there is, ranging from demolition, recon, CQC, sniping and assault. There is NO NEED to give them specialised armor and equipment when they could do a better job than most specialists even without their armor...  
**

**Sure, the Spartans were allowed to modify their equipment, as proved by Linda-058's heavly modified sniper rifle in the books and i understand that. While im against the permutations, since its expensive and useless, the accessories on the other hand are more than acceptable. Like Ray's bandolier that he uses to carry extra ammo in my story. Or the TACPAD, or any other kind of pouches or whatever else there is because its just that, accessories.  
**

**Now, i believe my rant or whatever it was is over. Sorry for you having to read this but just in case you were wondering about it, you got the answer. Heh, i think ill have more rants ready soon anyway. Well, thank you for reading my story, I would love to accept any constructive criticism, suggestions, ideas and just plain opinions (even if its negative. Be honest, thats it ^^), you can leave any of those in a PM or a review, whatever fits your boat :). Thanks to all the people who reviewed so far! I'm glad you liked my story! Have no doubt that by the end of this month, I will have the new chapter, not a rewrite, ready. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	10. Resting and Preparations

**Oh yeah... It's finally here, the moment you've all been waiting for, and so have I. The rewrite is finally and officially OVER! Hehe, now I feel overly awesome. The next chapter will be a continuationg, so you will finally get a new chapter after all this time. This time, i also plan on updating more frequently as I really want to finish writing this story as I have an overload of ideas for it.**

Anyway, this chapter is not that long (longer than the last version) but its okay by me. I enjoyed writing it anyway. Well, i dont have anything else to say other than 'enjoy!'

* * *

1540 Hours, September 25, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Planet Archenos / "Spartan's Hill"

Hilaerimus stood at the sight of the recent battlefield. His scowling face was enough of a warning to every single of his troopers, even the Mgalekgolo bond brothers who were with him took their distance. The Chieftain silently stood there, the body of his dead brother at his feet, and watched what remained of his face, occasionaly taking glances at the surrounding area. Most of the place was had glassed sections from plasma impact and nearly all the trees were charred, some of them were still smoking, even after the full day that passed since the battle came to an end. Dozens dead bodies of Unngoy, Kig-Yar and the single pair of Mglalekgolo bond brothers littered the area.

No matter at which angle Hilaerimus decided to see the situation, it was a catastrophe from all sides. The ship was supposed to crash, all survivors captured or killed but instead he got this new cluster of problems. Most of the survivors escaped, he lost a good portion of his troops and reinforcements were not an option. Not only that, he lost one of his chieftains, his brother of all things. The Scavengers managed to ressuply themselves at the cost of his losses and the worst of all, reports said that there was a pair of Demons with the Scavengers now.

The only comfort in this was that the demons were not _the_ Demon, the one who destroyed not one, but two sacred rings. These two must be of his kin... or something. He heard that many in the covenant believed that the demons were not even human, even though it was already proved that they were.

The only thing he had left to do was prepare for the worst. "Double the security in the facility and the base!" he barked to one of the higher ranked Jiralhanae, who jumped at the sudden attention he recieved from the chieftain. With that Hilaerimus stomped away from the battlefield, hefting his gravity hammer and swatting an unfortunate Unngoy out of his way.

* * *

A young woman sat on her bad in the infirmary with several patients curiously looking at her. It wasn't usually an unusual sight, a woman in the infirmary, but if one would consider her unusually pale skin, the amount of bandages that covered her, with small areas where the skin that was an angry red and slightly blistered, and the amount of rumors surrounding that particular woman, it peaked the curiosity of the others in the room.

She stood around six feet tall, around the age of twenty to thirty, though one couldn't be sure around these days with the cryo-stasis sleep which kept you young, and considering that this woman was a new arrival, they didn't know how much she traveled. She had brownish-red shoulder length hair, sleek and framing her face, which seemed so young and almost without flaws, which was harder to see these days, especially in the fighting sort who fought in the war. It was also easy to see that she was a soldier, simply by the way she sat and her body, while being slim it was covered by honed muscles, and there was a particular grace to her movements, as she sat there and ate perhaps the most astonishing amount of food that the other patients in the room have ever seen a woman – or any other human – eat.

Artemis shoveled another portion of the food in her tray, this time mashed potatoes with some unknown sauce covering it, but still, tasty. Savoring the taste she quickly, with the lack of a more appropriate word, shoveled another spoon of the delicious meal into her mouth, to the bemused and surprised expressions of the other patients in the infirmary.

She took a halfhearted glance at her curios – and somewhat awed – spectators before she returned to her food with an annoyed huff.

_'hadn't they seen a woman eat before?'_ she mused to herself, already annoyed by the stares.

Well, she couldn't really call herself a real woman... or she thought so. Logic dictated that she was blood and bone, a real human being, her mind though, was still a little baffled over this. She was human for almost a year and a half now and she still hadn't gotten used to it. She still discovered some new things about life as a human, and her own body in some cases. It was both amazing and frightening.

Fear in itself was something new to Artemis. As an AI she never felt fear, she never felt anything, at least, not like a human. She could simulate the emotion, as she studied it but it couldn't be compared to the real thing. Nothing could. The emotions flowing through her when in battle, the adrenaline flowing through her blood in dangerous situations, her increased heartbeat after an exciting battle... it was an amazing experience. She recalled the first year of her "life" as an organic being.

Ray supervised her training, which was extremely hastened, being only one year long. The problem was that she knew how to operate the weapons, all the vehicles, all necessary tactics... pretty much everything she would need as a Spartan. The problem was that she knew those things in her mind, not in body. She remembered the first days when she received her body, which she felt embarrassed about nowadays. Her brain was simply overloaded by all the senses. The smells, the sounds, the feeling of the fabric of the sheets of her bed, the soft and smooth skin of her body, her hair. That in itself was amazing. Her first steps though were rather painful as she discovered that the floor could be a dangerous thing. Nowadays the thought about tripping over her own legs was ludicrous and simply impossible but back then, she could barely walk or even eat normally.

The word 'eat' caused her lips to form a large smile. All the tastes! She gave a look at the empty food trays at her bedside, wondering if she should ask for more, although she doubted they will comply with her request. All the food she tasted so far, the ones that caused her mouth to water, or the ones that nearly caused her to drool. She even found those MRE's to be tasty, despite the common opinion. She will never understand how people took those things for granted. Perhaps being born with the ability to feel and eat had something to do with that, as she spent a while being data before getting a body.

There were downsides of course, mainly being hunger and the need to keep her body alive, something that she forgot to do in her first days as a human. There was also that odd sense of vulnerability that followed her, though the armor helped to ease it. She quickly discovered that pretty much everything could hurt her: the floor, the walls, sharp and pointy objects, fists and aliens being among them. That fact caused her to appreciate humanity all the more and make her wonder how the hell they survived for this long. Ray did his best to prepare her to the battles ahead, as in beating the crap out of her daily which at first left her numb from the feeling of pain, and for that she was thankful.

That particular line of thought caused her to wince and she felt her wounds sting. So far she was never hit in battle, Ray went great lengths to ensure that. The last battle though... it was the first time she felt desperation. Her Spartan teammate taught her well how to control her emotions but she couldn't simply make them vanish – though she sometimes wondered if Ray could – like they weren't there. She simply buried them and ignored them. The thought that the enemy will simply overrun them and they will be killed made her nervous.

When she was hit by that Hunter... she couldn't even describe the sheer amount of pain that followed. Ray's punches hurt, quite a lot really but it couldn't compare to that. She might describe what happened to her as a sensory overload. The sheer amount of pain she experienced caused her brain to simply shut down.

For that, she felt ashamed. That caused her some confusion, which she worked to understand as she ate. She couldn't have dodged that shot, she actually did manage to avoid being hit directly but that was it. She felt like a burden to her teammate but her logical mind quickly summarized that she will never be as good as him. He had over thirty years of experience more than her. He grew up on the battlefield to begin with. She was just... created and shoved into a human body and taught how to kill. These thoughts caused her to frown for several seconds until she dismissed them. There wasn't any point in sulking over the matter. Ray once told her that ever if she wasn't as good as him ("probably never will be" he said) she simply had to get better if she wanted to catch up. With that in mind she decided that as soon as she will be out of this place she will up her training and force Ray to make her better, as he was her superior in all aspects.

'_Speaking of the devil...' _she thought as she saw the door slide open and an armored Spartan – whose armor had a bit of shine to it now – strode in. She actually had to wonder if he even remembered she was here at first, with that uncaring facade of his. When she saw that he carried a tray of food with him it caused her to appreciate her teammate even more.

"I brought you..." he trailed off, seeing the two empty trays and third one which she was close to emptying. "food," he deadpanned, placing the food near the empty trays.

"What?" she asked, forgetting that her mouth was filled with food, thus causing her question to become muffled. Ray simply shook his helmeted head before he removed the helmet and held it under his arm. He didn't take a seat, as he suspected that the flimsy piece of chair wont support his weight.

Artemis immediately saw the disapproving look he was giving her. She swallowed the food with little difficulty and raised an eyebrow when he rolled his eyes. "What, I'm hungry!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms to the side, causing herself some pain with some of her injuries.

"I can see that," he remarked, his eyes hovering over the empty trays again. "I just don't understand why you have to eat like this. You're scaring the locals," he finished, glancing over to the slightly awed spectators.

"Meh, screw them. This is so much better than the MRE's..." Artemis muttered as she started to wolf down the food Ray brought for her.

"Don't you know you can get sick from eating so much? I heard that people could actually die from that..." Ray asked her, truly curious.

"Don't make me laugh. I haven't felt better in... ever, I guess," she stated, quickly filling her empty mouth with more food.

Ray stood there silently for several minutes, watching Artemis eat while she completely ignored him. When the woman finally finished the food she leaned back on her very comfortable pillow and released a content sigh, allowing herself to show a small smile. "So whats the situation?" she asked him, turning her head to look at him. "I already understood that most of the people here are civilians."

"You're right about that. Anyway, we're stuck here for now," he explained, "There's a forerunner facility here, supposedly controls gravity or something of the like. There's a ship docked for repairs but even if we do managed to steal it, we wont be able to leave the atmosphere," he finished. Artemis sat silently, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"I see," was all she said after a few moments. Ray quickly proceeded to explain to her everything else that he knew of while Artemis silently listened, the same expression on her face. "You have a briefing soon, right?"

"I will update you once I come back from the briefing," Ray assured her. After that another moment of silence descended upon the Spartans. Artemis was arranging all the empty food trays into relative neatness, piling them up while Ray silently watched.

"Hey, Ray?" Artemis suddenly asked, her voice oddly silent. Ray hummed in response to to indicate that he was listening and she continued. "What... what are you planning on doing when we will finish fighting the Brutes?" she asked, giving the veteran Spartan a curious look. Ray's eyes widened a fraction at that question, suddenly recalling a similar questions that he was asked long ago.

* * *

"_Ray, what are you planing on doing after the war?" Amy asked him. Ray turned his attention from his rifle to his female teammate, who was cleaning her SMG's. Ray pondered the question, wondering what he will do. He had doubts that he will fit into civilian life, as the only thing that he did know was military service. Heck, he considered himself a soldier when he was eight. What was he going to do after the war? He wasn't even sure there would be after the war. They all knew that they were slowly but steadily losing this war._

"_I don't know. I don't think I'll do anything else other than being a soldier," he replied honestly. What brought this on?" he asked. Amy never talked about things like this._

"_Maria was relieved from duty..." Amy mumbled, barely loud enough for Ray to hear._

_Ray sighed at that reminder. It's been nearly a week since Maria was wounded and the announcement that she wont be able to continue being in the SPARTAN-II project. Of course, there __was__ hope that she could return when she will recover enough but it wont happen in a long while...  
Ray knew that Amy and Maria were pretty close before they were separated into teams and Maria was nearly a part of their small group which consisted of Ray, Zack and Amy._

"_Yeah," was the lame response Ray offered._

"_She said that she wanted to start a family, since she wont be fighting now," Amy added. Ray blinked at that, hearing that for the first time. The concept of starting a family was completely foreign to him. The Spartans were a family, of course, but there was something different in starting a family. It was more personal and Ray was entirely unfamiliar with that, other than the fuzzy and half-forgotten memories he had before the SPARTAN-II project came into his life._

"_I see," he replied. An awkward silence descended, through which Ray returned his attention to his sniper rifle, attempting to calibrate his new scope._

"_You know that I never wanted to be a Spartan?" Amy suddenly said. Ray turned to her, eyebrows raised in surprise. "yeah. I never wanted that. Later, I just realised that it wasn't about what I wanted, but what I needed to do. I was needed as a Spartan," she said firmly. "I… just don't know what I will do when I wont be needed anymore…" she trailed off._

_Ray could understand her to some degree. Spartans were the elite of the UNSC against the Covenant. Whenever they were in a ground battle, it was nearly an ensured victory, at least until the glassing started. What will Ray do when there wont be a need for him and his his bretheren?_

_Ray shook his head, clearing his heads and dismissing these thoughts, silently cursing Amy for giving him odd ideas. The was wasn't over yet, far from it actually. He could think about these things when there wont be a Covenant to fight and when he will be an old and whithered man._

* * *

"Ray?" Artemis asked, slight worry in her voice. Ray nearly jumped a the sound of her voice.

"Uh, yes?" Ray asked, somehwta sheepishly.

"I asked you a question," she repeated.

"I… don't know. I don't know anything else other than being a Spartan," he replied honestly, just like replied to Amy years ago.

"Hmm, I don't think you will be needed in the frontlines when we do finish them, I am a proof of that," she paused, seeing his raised eyebrow. "I mean, as much as I hate to say this as it is a bit offending, I am cheaper," she clarified with a frown.

Ray nodded, understanding her logic. It took seven years to train them to their level while he spent only a little longer than a year to train Artemis. Logically, it was a lot more economically effective than the original SPARTAN-II project and economically effective was exactly what the UNSC was looking for as the economics was in shambles even after all this time after the end of the war, which didn't really end as the Brutes still continued aggressive acts of war against humanity.

"On the other hand, if they deem me a success its entirely possible that they might make more of my kind. You might get a new job as an instructor," she added with a smirk.

That comment left something for Ray to think about. It was somehwat true. As far as he knew, he was one of the last active Spartans left. The other were reassigned and he had no way of knowing whether they were alive or dead. To him, he was the last one of the SPARTAN-II's. What Artemis said made sense in a way. Who could train new Spartans better than a Spartan?

"Don't worry. You're a success. You're one of the best one's out there," and with that Ray turned around and made his way to the door, donning his helmet on the way and leaving the slightly stunned Artemis to sit there, with a weird fluttering feeling in her stomach at the sound of his praise.

* * *

Ray made entered the room designated as the meeting room exactly on the specified time, causing all the occupants of the room to turn their attention to the armored soldier. All conversations halted for a few seconds before they dissmised his apearance and resumed talking about whatever they talked. The only people that were in the room were Captain Pavlov and one unknown man in a uniform, which had the insignia of a commander.

The Spartan didn't take a seat, as nearly nothing in that room, other than the table, could possible support his weight. Several seconds after he entered Jennifer entered the room, gave a nod to the Spartan and took her seat.

"This is commander Steven O'Hara," she gestured at the man. He had a grizzled apearance, graying hair, a notable stubble and slightly scarred face. The most noticable feature was the slightly crooked now, which looked like it was smashed in at one point in the past. O'Hara gave a nod to the Spartan. "I believe you already know the Captain so this is," she gestured at the Spartan now, "Lieutenant junior grade Spartan one-two-eight," Ray offered a nod in return.

"Alright, ill be quick about this. Leyla?" The built-in holo-tank in the table lit upm showing the image of a some sort of structure, obviously made by covenant if the architecture was an indicator. Above that structure was hovering a familiar corvette, familiar because of the gaping hole in it's side. "This is their main base. Most of their equipment is there and so is the most of their forces. Our scouts report that they begun the repairs to the ship so I believe we will need to hurry a bit. You will not need to worry about this though as its not your concern," Jennifer explained, speaking the last part to the Spartan, causing Ray to raise an eyebrow, which he noticed he was doing a lot this day.

"_This _is your concern," the image changed again and Ray's interest was peaked. The image displayed a dome-shaped building – or whatever that was, even though he suspected it was the forerunner facility – half buried in the ground at the bottom of a large crater. Around the facility he spotted various defensible positions. Turrets, AA weaponry, several tanks and he had no doubts that there was a generous amount of troops defending the place, even though they werent displayed in the image.

"These images are old, around a year old, so we have no idea whats the situation there now. A year ago our scouting parties dissapeared without a trace there and we suspect they were captured so we stopped sending them. Unfortunately, that left us without new intel about the facility," Jennifer explained and Ray noted that O'Hara was shaking his head as he listened. "What we are planning to do is devide our forces. We attempted assaulting one of the places before but whenever one place was attacked, the other would offer support. It was a near-suicide to attack one of them. So what we are planning to do is this: While our makeshift army attacks the main base, you will disable, or capture, the facility."

"Am I to do this alone?" Ray asked.

"Yes, unless you have some volunteers willing to join you," she replied grimly. "A small team will have a better chance at getting close enough to that place," she finished. Ray wasn't sure if he should feelt flattered. When she said 'devide our forces' she meant that he will be the other part of the devided force.

"Understood," he eventually replied.

"Captain Pavlov informed me that you accomplished harder things than this so I believe that wont find this too hard for one of your caliber," O'Hara remarked, speaking for the first time in the meeting. "That's why we will need your teammate for the assault on the base as you understand, most of our available fighters are not soldiers, she will give us valuable assistance."

Ray nodded at that, understanding fully. He also knew that while Artemis was good at stealth, she wasn't as good as him, as he had a couple of decades of experience. On the other hand, Artemis was great in an assault role, so assaulting the Brute base would be perfect for her.

"Once you disable the AA weapons at these locations," he pointed them out in the holographic image, "we will be able to offer you assistance at the facility, so consider these AA guns to be your top-most secondary objective. Once you get inside the facility find a way to disable or destroy the facility. I don't care how you do it. Overload the generators if it has any, destroy the cooling systems, for all I care you can blow up a nuke in there. As long as the facility is out of commision, consider it mission accomplished."

"Yes sir," Ray responded.

"Good. You may go and prepare for the mission, I'll give you clearance to the armory. You're leaving tomorrow at 1600 hours," O'Hara responded. Ray offered a crisp salute and left the room, having received his orders. As he left the room he already knew where he will head. Quickly reaching the elevator he descended down to the floor he was on only hours ago. The journey to the armory was as uneventful as his first one was.

When he entered the armory he couldn't help but grin, a grin similar to what others would describe as a 'kid in a candy store' kind of grin. Rows upon rows of weapons, ranging from assault rifles to battle rifles, handguns, SMG's, sniper rifles and even an impressive collection of covenant weaponry were arrange in neat rows on tables and shelves. Near the farthest wall there was a large pile of crates which he was sure were filled with even more weapons. On other tables he saw a vast amount of other equipment such as a variety of grenades, land mines, point-defense gauntlets and he even spotted a portable gravity lift. On another side of the armory was a heavy titanium door, which most probably housed the heavy duty equipment, which was exactly what he needed.

"Uh… can I help you?" a timid voice asked. Ray turned his helmeted head to see a young man sitting behind a table, watching him with some caution.

"Yeah, you can. I need that door opened. I have clearance from commander O'Hara," Ray supplied.

"Ah, so you're the one who the commander talked about," the man said, now visibly relaxing. "Come on, ill open the door for you."

Ray followed the young man to the door, where he quickly tapped a code into the lock and allowed the door to open with a hiss. "So… what do you need from there?" the man asked in interest.

"Just a couple dozen pounds of C12 and a HAVOK," Ray replied casually, silently enjoying how the man's face paled as he heard those words.

* * *

**Woohoo! Oh yeah baby, yeah! This chapter is done and the next one will be entirely new. I'm sort of excited here. I've been working on the rewrite for what... a year now? thats way too long for my likings. Next chapter should be ready soon though i wont promise anything yet since i have two other stories to work on, but i promise that i will try to update quickly.**

As for Maria... well, its a theory that she's the Spartan that was too wounded to continue service, since Spartans are not given the option to retire, especially during a freaking genocidal war of all things. I mean, if you are freaking kidnapped as a kid, trained to be a super-soldier, i doubt they will allow you to just leave the service after all the stuff you've seen. It's goverment secrets you know. I guess thats why all the other Spartans, either those who failed the augmentation process or others who were wounded or something, were just transferred to an office job or something. Which baffles me since Maria is obviously in good shape is she can kick ODST ass...

**Anyway, enough explenations and ranting for now, i plan to just add those to my profile page. Thank you for reading my story. Your support made this into a very enjoyable experience for me. I warmly welcome constructive criticism, idea, suggestions and simple feedback on what you thought. Heck, you can rant about something you read, I would like to know what pissed you off so much :P. Until next time, Delvaro out.  
**


	11. Rewrite Author's Note!

**Okay, chapter 10 is rewritten and the rewriting is officially OVER! The next new chapter will replace this now useless AN and you will finally start enjoying this story to its full capacity! Thank you for sticking with hte story for so long and waited for me to finish rewriting it!  
**


	12. Really Important AN!

Ugh. Okay, I'm REALLY frustrated right now. Yeah, sorry for the delay by the way. Unfortunately, it might take a bit longer. You see, I just finished reading Halo: Glasslands, which basically shows us what happened after MC blew up the Ark. Yeah, what happened after Halo 3 and most importantly to Dr. Halsey and the rest of Blue team. Yeah... I can finally see why a friend of mine quit writing for Halo. The canon is like water, constantly ripples, changes all the time. I'm trying to make the story as close to canon as possible, only with my own stuff, like characters and events, but I encountered the most popular problem of writing ahead of canon. When canon finally catches up, its not as quite as you imagined it would be. So yeah, what I wrote now doesnt work well with the canon. But fear not! I can fix it quite easily. I will not have to rewrite the whole story (thank god, one time was enough!) but I'm going to make certain key changes. Bear in mind that Glasslands is still in 2553 and there are some large events happening in that year and since the book was over before I found out what the hell's happening...I'll write my stuff until once again, the canon will fuck me up. So yeah, I'll make some key changes and post the new chapter along with it (50% complete but i need to change it TOO!). So be sure to check the older chapters for all the changes, since you just might be a bit confused! I'm trying to make my own story here, not ride the coattails of other characters like the Chief (as in, popping in Ray into the fights alongside Chief. No, thats NOT cool). I'm trying to make my own character, although he is a bit bland, I must admit, but then again, he's a Spartan...and I'm a lousy character creator, usually. So yeah, I really hope you enjoyed the story so far (the measly 10 - or was it 9? - chapters I wrote) and are still waiting for the new ones. Until I change the stuff, which is the next time ill update the story, see you later! 


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